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THE AUTIIOU 



Life on the Old Plantation 
in Ante-Bellum Days 



OR 



A Story 6ased on Facts 



BY 



REV. I. E. LOWERY 



If 



WitL Brief Sketches of tke Author ty tke Late Rev, j, 
^Vorrord A\^Kite of tke Soutk Carolina Confer- 
ence, metnoaist Episcopal Church 



AND 



An Appendix 



Columbia, S. C. 

THE STATE CO., PRINTERS 

1911 






Copyright, 1911 

By 

THE STATE COMPANY 



vJ 



/P^ f^ A o o n -^ i "^ 



^'Backward, turn backward, O Time in your flight; 
Make me a child again just for tonight." 

MEMORIES. 

O mystic Land of Smiles and Tears, 

O Land that Was and Is, 
Alone — unchanging with the years — 

The Land of Memories. 

— John Trot wood Moore. 



CONTENTS 

Brief Sketches of the Author. 

CHAPTER I. 
The Old Plantation. 

CHAPTER 11. 

The Proprietor of the Old Plantation. 

CHAPTER III. 
Granny^ the Cook^ on the Old Plantation. 

CHAPTER IV. 
A 'Possum Hunt on the Old Plantation. 

CHAPTER V. 
A Wedding on the Old Plantation. 

CHAPTER VI. 

Christmas on the Old Plantation. 

CHAPTER VII. 

Sunday on the Old Plantation^ 

5 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER VIII. 
A Funeral on the Old Plantation. 

CHAPTER IX. 

A LOG-ROLLING ON THE OlD PLANTATION. 

CHAPTER X. 
A Corn-Shucking on thp Old Plantation. 

CHAPTER XI. 

Little Jimmie^ the Mail Boy^ on the Old 

Plantation. 

CHAPTER XII. 
A Love Story on the Old Plantation. 

CHAPTER XIII. 
The Breaking Up of the Old Plantation. 



PART SECOND 



APPENDIX 

SIGNS OF A BETTER DAY FOR THE 
NEGRO IN THE SOUTH 

By I. E. LowERY 

I. 

Introduction. 

11. 

White Patrons of Negro Business Enter- 
prises. 

III. 

White Contributors Toward the Building op 
Negro Churches. 

IV. 

White Contributors Toward the Building of 
Negro Churches. — Continued. 



CONTENTS 



V. 



White Contributors Toward the Building of 
Negro Schools. 

VI. 

Current Incidents of Negro Industrial 
Achievements. 

VII. 

Friendly Expressions of Southern White 
People for the Negro. 

VIII. 

Friendly Expressions of Southern White 
People for the Negro. — Continued. 

IX. 

The White People^s Care of the Old Black 

Mammies. 



PREFACE 

I have no apology to make, and no excuse to 
offer for writing this book — "Life on the Old 
Plantation in Ante-Bellum Days.'' It is not the 
result of vanity, neither is it a desire for noto- 
riety, that prompted me to write it. No, my 
reasons are higher, and my purposes are nobler. 
My only desire has been to do good. The religious 
element runs through the entire story. 

It has been a work of faith and a labor of love 
to me. I cannot express the pleasure I have had 
in sitting down, and recalling the incidents of 
my childhood and youth. In doing so, it has 
enabled me to live my life over again. I only 
hope that the reader will experience something 
of the same pleasure in reading the book that I 
have had in writing it. 

The "Brief Sketches of the Author" were 
written just twenty years ago by the late Rev. 
J. Wofford White. He was a colored man, and a 
close friend of mine, and was born and reared in 
the same neighborhood with myself. These 
sketches were printed in The Christian Witness, 
a Boston (Mass.) newspaper, and were clipped 
and carefully pasted in my scrapbook. I repub- 
lish them in this connection without changing a 



PREFACE 

single word. I would ask the reader to peruse 
tbem carefully, and compare them with Chapter 
XI, entitled ''Little Jimmie, the Mail Boy,'' and 
note the similarity of characters. 

I have written this book because there is no 
other work in existence just like it. No author, 
white or colored, so far as I know, has traversed, 
or attempted to traverse, the literary path w^hich 
I presume to have trodden in writing this book. 
We are now about forty-five years away from the 
last days of slavery and the first days of free- 
dom, and the people who have any personal 
knowledge of those days are rapidly crossing the 
mystic river, and entering the land that knows 
no shadows; and soon, there will not be one left 
to tell the story. And it is the author's thought 
that a record of the better life of those days 
should be left for the good of the future genera- 
tions of this beautiful southland. Others have 
written of the evil side of those days, but the 
author felt it to be his mission to write of the 
better side. 

Before the war, the relation that existed 
between the master and his slaves was, in most 
cases, one of tenderness and affection. There 
was a mutual attachment between them, which 
has commanded the admiration of the world. 
But since the war, an estrangement between the 
colored and the white races has sprung up, which 

10 



PREFACE 

has resulted in a feeling of intense bitterness and 
alienation. But I am glad to say that things are 
now taking a turn for the better. I can see signs 
of a better day ahead ; and if this book should, in 
any way, contribute to, and help on this much 
desired day, the author will be satisfied. 

I conclude this preface with the following clip- 
ping: 

WANT TO HONOR OLD SLAVES. 

An appeal to erect a monument to the former 
slaves of the South was issued in New Orleans a 
few days ago from the headquarters of the United 
Confederate Veterans by Gen. George W. Gordon, 
commander-in-chief of the veterans. 

The appeal is in the form of a general order, 
which quotes the resolutions favoring such a monu- 
ment adopted at the Birmingham reunion in 1908, 
and adds: 

"Only those familiar with the beautiful patri- 
archial life on the Southern plantations previous to 
1865 know of the devotions of the slaves to their 
owners and the children of the family. They were 
raised more like members of a large household. 

"The children of the owners and the slaves asso- 
ciated most intimately together, and enjoyed alike 
the pleasure of the home, all receiving the care and 
attention of the heads of the family, who had a 
feeling of tender affections for these departments." 

The devotion of these slaves during war time 
in caring for the plantations, in sharing dangers at 

11 



PREFACE 

the front and nursing the wounded is noted, and the 
order concludes with an appeal to the U. C. V., the 
U. D. C, the U. S. C. V., and the C. S. M. A., to 
see "that some evidence is given to the world of 
their appreciation of the faithfulness and affection 
of this devoted people." 

I. E. LOWERY. 
Columbia, S. C, September 13, 1910. 



12 



BRIEF SKETCHES OF THE AUTHOR. 

I. 

By the Late Rev. J. Wofford White. 

When one has accomplished something of good 
for his fellowman, and performed work worthy 
of praise, people become interested not only in 
what he has done, but also in the history of the 
person himself. As fulsome praise is invidious, 
and heartless flattery no less damaging than 
unjust, we shall not make the mistake of com- 
mitting the blunder of doing either, but shall 
state the facts as they exist. 

The Rev. Irving E. Lowery, A. M., was born in 
the County of Sumter, State of South Carolina, 
September 16th, 1850, and is, therefore, 37 years 
old. His parents were born slaves ; it was in this 
condition, too, that he came into this world. His 
father lives today [He has since died — The 
Author] at the ripe age of almost four-score 
years. He has been known always as a man of 
integrity, strict honesty, and possessed of much 
energy and industry, and withal a man of much 
natural ability. Long before the war, by economy 
and frugality, he had saved enough in hard- 
earned wages to purchase his own freedom. He 
succeeded also in purchasing the freedom of his 

13 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

motlier, and when Abraham Lincoln -issued the 
famous Emancipation Proclamation he was 
making herculean efforts to purchase his wife. 
Under the new order of things, by dint of per- 
severance and hard labor by night as well as day, 
he managed with shrewdness to secure an excel- 
lent farm, and although today the hoar-frost of 
seventy-eight winters is clearly observable, he 
superintends his business, is observant of passing 
events, and takes a lively interest in the ques- 
tions of the day. The mother has been noted 
always for her modesty, piety, and Christ-like 
demeanor. To her the children are indebted for 
all the home training they received that pertains 
to the Christian life. 

Years ago, when the subject of these sketches 
was a mere boy, this pious mother, without a 
dream of freedom, with faith in the God she 
served, prayed that He would call one of her 
sons to be a preacher of the Gospel, which then 
meant to be an exhorter or class-leader. "Only 
this and notliing more." Wonderful as myste- 
rious are the ways of God! Long years after- 
ward that mother's prayers were signally 
answered in a way wonderful to speak of — a way 
she could not have appreciated at tlie time the 
prayers were offered. It is an example worthy 
of being followed by all Christian parents, who 
should unfalteringly commit their children by 

14 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

faith and prayer to the Lord. After they are 
dead, in answer to the prayers on behalf of their 
children, God will in some way bring about 
the desired results. How these prayers were 
answered will be related further on. 

Brother Lowery had better advantages tlian 
most of the boys on the plantation. Being of a 
lively, quick and sprightly disposition, his owner 
took him "into the house'' when he was quite 
young. In the same room, on a little pallet, he 
slept with his master and wife. He made the 
fires in the early winter mornings, blew the 
signal at the break of day for the feeding of the 
horses and beginning the preparations for the 
labor of the day. As the master was a Methodist 
of the old-fashioned type common "in ye olden 
time," there was a family altar in that house, and 
this little slave boy was one who bowed at it in 
devotion. A little pony for his exclusive use to 
ride for mail and do errands, was furnished him. 
In going to the county-seat on business, or when 
visiting alone or with his family, this boy was 
invariably the companion of his master; thus he 
saw more than the other boys, came in contact 
with more people, obtained a better knowledge 
of men and things, and as a result, he became 
more observant, more inquisitive, and more intel- 
ligent. Thus, even in a condition of abject thrall- 
dom, God was making the wrath of men to praise 

15 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

Him by causing them thus to sow the seeds of 
usefulness in the heart of one whom He deter- 
mined, in answer to the prayers of a pious 
mother, to lead into paths of holiness, usefulness 
and peace, and to become a preacher of the Gospel 
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. As to 
church privileges, he had but few, although the 
best of such as were allowed slaves. Anon he 
was permitted to go to public service at the 
church, but more frequently the slaves were 
gathered together in old master's yard, and some 
exhorter or leader was allowed to come, under 
the surveillance of a white man, lest something 
insurrectionary be said — and conduct a service 
of prayer and praise. 

As this was the limit of their liberty to wor- 
ship, it is not to be wondered at tliat they entered 
into their services with a zeal and fervency, and 
to this day it is said of the negro that they pray 
more, and naturally sing better, than any other 
race. We say nothing of slavery, since it is 
accursed of God and man, but even with the best 
possible circumstances under such a condition 
and environment, no one could become efficient 
and useful in the highest sense of the term. That 
system had no elements to draw out the best in 
any one, be he master or slave. It was calculated 
to bring out the worst in both, and develop it to 
an unlimited degree. This proved to be the inva- 

16 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

riable result. True, many were saved, and we 
know of many good people that lived in those 
days, but it must be remembered that God's love 
is so far-reaching that it accomplishes what is 
impossible to man. Of itself, what did slavery 
do for any? What did it do for our brother? 
Absolutely nothing. Dear readers, when the 
morning of January first, 1863, dawned upon 
this fair but then blighted land, and the first raj 
of hope — the Proclamation of Emancipation — 
burst forth from a leaden sky, he who has ere 
this become a familiar name in your household, 
had not learned his alphabet, was in blissful 
ignorance of his high calling, had dreamed 
naught else than a life of slavery; in this condi- 
tion because of his training from infancy, he was 
contented to live, and worse than all, he had not 
tasted of Jesus's blood that purifies our sinful 
hearts. 



Brief Sketches of the Author. 

II. 

More than two years passed after that 
immortal document had been made public. Not 
till the South had stacked arms at Apx3omattox, 
and agents of the Government sent to every plan- 
tation to effect a legal contract between master 

17 

2— o. p. 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

and slaves, did the great mass of negroes learn 
that they were indeed freed men. When this was 
thoroughly understood, old men and women 
jumped for joy, young men and maidens clapped 
their hands and shouted. The old masters sub- 
mitted, apparently, to the new order of things. 
When the agent came around. Brother Lowery 
was then a boy in his teens, and he signed the 
contract to remain that year. 

He continued, till one day he was approached 
by his old master's son with a whip in one hand 
and a gun in the other. Without any provoca- 
tion, he began to thrash the servants unmerci- 
fully. Seeing that his turn would soon come, he 
said to a companion, older than himself, ^^I will 
not stand this ; I will go to Sumter and complain 
to the Provost Marshal." He leaped over the 
fence, and into the dense forest ran, followed by 
the friend referred to. Night was fast approach- 
ing; they wandered and traveled through 
SAvamps, and waded branches, till, after a ramble 
of fifteen miles, they got to the railroad that runs 
by the county-seat. Here they stopped to rest, 
as it was late at night, wath the damp earth for a 
bed and the heavens for a covering. When the 
sun arose they aroused tliemselves, and shivering 
with cold, affrighted and hungry, they hurried 
toward their destination, about twenty miles 
away. They reached the place, inquired their 

18 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

way to the proper office, and were ushered into 
the presence of the Provost Marshal. Their 
complaint in simple language was made. 

This was Brother Lowery's first public ad- 
dress, which was a statement of the grievances 
he had been made to suffer. After he had fin- 
ished the reaction came, and the untutored 
youth melted into tears. The redress he sought 
was granted in part. A writ from this office 
turned him over to the custody of his father. 
With him, on a rented farm, he labored. At the 
end of that year the family was all reunited. In 
the year 1866, through the philanthropy of an 
educational society of New England, a free 
school, the first ever opened in that community 
for negroes, began its session. At the age of six- 
teen he was entered by his father and began the 
arduous task of mastering the alphabet after the 
manner pursued by teachers in ye olden time. 
He readily took to learning, and very soon was 
reading. His hunger for knowledge became 
intense. His father, according to his training, 
thought that work stood first in importance, and 
schooling was something to attend when farm 
work was over. This doctrine was very distaste- 
ful to one who had begun to drink from the 
fount of knowledge, so he ran away from his 
father, hired his time to work on the railroad; 
but the father, with an eye to business, waited 

19 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

patiently till the month was ended, was promptly 
on hand when the pay- train arrived and claimed 
the wages of his son — he being a minor. When 
the youth realized that thus it would be at the 
end of each succeeding month, he willingly 
returned to the home of his father. 

The father, recognizing the exceeding anxious- 
ness of the son to become educated, concluded to 
send him to school. As this stage marks the 
most important change in his life, pardon a little 
digression. 

In 1865 the Kev. Timothy W. Lewis was sent 
to South Carolina to reorganize the Methodist 
Episcopal Church. He was soon strengthened by 
the Rev. A. Webster, D. D., recently deceased. 
Baker's Institute was established in Charleston 
for the training of young men for the ministry. 
One of the first to enter it was a brother full of 
zeal and the Holy Ghost. This brother belonged 
to the same community wherein lived Brother 
Lowery, and was widely known for his piety, 
having managed, with great secrecy, to obtain a 
fair knowledge of English branches. He spent 
one year at this institute. As the field was white 
and but few laborers, he was sent out to gather 
the people and assist in the organization of the 
church. This brother swayed great influence 
over the old, and especially the young. Among 



20 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

the young men who frequented the church under 
his ministry was the subject of our sketch. 

Just about the time his father concluded to 
give every available advantage to enable him to 
prosecute his studies, he was happily converted 
under the pastorate of tlie sainted Joseph White, 
the brother referred to above. He joined the 
Methodist Episcopal Church in the year 1867. 
His conversion was sound and thorough, and 
although he hesitated to obey, he felt the irresist- 
ible call of God to preach the gospel of His Son. 
Thus the mother's prayers offered years before, 
when her son was a boy, were most singularly 
answered in the conversion of this son, and his 
being called to the ministry. He was licensed to 
exhort in the year 1868, and as the way was 
opened, he was directed by his pastor to Baker's 
Institute, which he entered and remained two 
years— 1868 and 1869. He was the first student 
that registered at Claflin University. This was 
October, 1869. 

There he continued till the latter part of 1870. 
In December of that year he was made a local 
preacher, joined the South Carolina Conference, 
was ordained deacon by Bishop Simpson and 
stationed by him at Cheraw. He remained there 
two years ; he was then, at the beginning of 1873, 
sent to Columbia, where he remained till August. 
He then went to Wilbraham, Mass., to complete 

21 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

his education in the Wesleyan Academy, then 
under the presidency of Rev. Dr. Cooke. In the 
spring of 1874 he completely broke down in 
health and was forced to return home for the 
year. Influences, strong and powerful, were 
brought forward to induce him to enter politics. 
He was offered the nomination for School Com- 
missioner, then equivalent to an election. 
Although the temptation was seductive, the 
inducements great and offers flattering, he 
turned neither to the right nor the left. He com- 
manded Satan to get behind him, and he was 
obeyed, for the weakest Christian is stronger 
than the devil, because God dwelleth in him. 
Until the meeting of the Conference in January, 
1875, he taught school in Sumter and was prin- 
cipal of the high school. It was here that he met 
the young lady who afterward became his wife. 
She is of noble and pious parentage, well edu- 
cated, and, from peculiar advantages, was reared 
in the best colored society and influences in 
Charleston. It is a blessed union to both, and 
much of Brother Lowery's success in the minis- 
try is due to the industry, energy and helpfulness 
of his wife. Five children enliven the interest 
of their home life, and they are carefully 
instructed in the way of life by their parents. 
Theirs is a model. Christian home, where the 
family Bible occupies a conspicuous place, and 

22 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

wherein is an altar erected to the Lord of Hosts, 
around which, twice a day — morning and even- 
ing — the family gather for worship, prayer and 
praise. 



Brief Sketches of the Author. 
III. 

Rev. I. E. Lowery commenced again his active 
work in the ministry in tlie year 1875, soon after 
his return from Wesleyan Academy. He was 
appointed to Summerville by Bishop Wiley, an 
appointment high in grade, both because of the 
intelligence of the local membership and of its 
proximity to Charleston, many of whose best 
citizens, both white and colored, own homes and 
spend the summer there. With satisfaction to 
the people he remained there two years, and was 
by Bishop Harris appointed to the station of 
Greenville, with a membership of about 700, 
whose acquirements socially, intellectually and 
religiously are equal to that of any membership 
of any community or city in the State. 

Soon after this young brother's arrival at his 
new field of labor he discovered that the people 
he was to serve were not only religious, but were 
Christians of a very pronounced and advanced 
type, many of whom were blessed with the grace 

23 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

of sanctification. Such openly professed, and, 
better still, lived it. 

The Rev. True Whittier is one of the noble 
band of Christian missionaries that came to the 
South after the war. He was zealous for the 
Master. He preached sanctification all over the 
upper part of the State, where he served as pre- 
siding elder, and as a result numbers sought till 
they found full peace and cleansing of heart. 

Greenville, of which we now write, was the 
principal hot-bed of this phase of Christian expe- 
rience. Many here had enjoyed this fullness long 
before Brother Whittier's time, but they did not 
proclaim it as a distinct blessing. It is possible 
tliat they knew it not. He preached it, it was 
believed and many experienced it. This was the 
condition of the church w^hen Brother Lowery 
took charge. He had not up to this time given 
much thought to this subject. Now he was made 
to face it. What could he do with a membership 
largely in advance of him in Christian experi- 
ence? You can imagine the answer to such an 
inquiry more easily than it can be given. What 
did he do? He did what all ought to do who 
have not yet received it. Confessed his lack in 
tliat experience, earnestly solicited the prayers 
of the faithful, sought by meditation, prayer and 
faith until he found to his joy the blessed expe- 
rience of sanctification, a second, separate and 

24 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

distinctly different blessing to that experienced 
in regeneration. He began then to preach as 
never before. His pulpit efforts were filled with 
a holy unction. Hitherto he had with all faith- 
fulness preached the gospel, but now he preached 
a full gospel. While he does not make the sub- 
ject a specialty, yet he hesitates not in claiming 
it as his own experience, and proclaiming the 
necessity of this experience not only to complete 
that of all Christians, but until it is sought and 
found the whole duty is not performed, require- 
ments of spiritual life are not met, the danger 
line still in sight, and indeed not passed; for 
sanctification means, if anything, not only the 
pardon of sins, assurance and the other divine 
evidences of acceptance ; it includes also the idea 
of the change in our nature of a proneness, 
inclination or natural bent to do evil, to a prone- 
ness or natural bent in us to do that only which 
pleases God. From the time of his experience of 
sanctification he has been, and is today, a differ- 
ent preacher altogether. The change is almost 
as marked between sanctification and regenera- 
tion as that between the highest type of moral 
living and regeneration. For three full years to 
an ever-increasing congregation and member- 
ship, he acceptably served the church at Green- 
ville. It was with greatest reluctance that the 
people gave him up. 

25 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

By Bishop Simpson, in the year 1880, he was 
appointed to Wesley, one of the three important 
stations in the city of Charleston. Under him 
the membership grew rapidly. Here he remained 
three years, full of labors for the Master, and 
when he was moved by expiration of the time- 
limit, he carried with him the good wishes of the 
membership of the church he had served so faith- 
fully and well. Recently he visited Charleston, 
and as an illustration of the hold he has on the 
people, the church was crowded to overflowing to 
hear his sermons, and by careful computation 
1;200 came to hear his lecture, "The Twenty 
Years' Progress of the Colored Race." Bishop 
Merrill then appointed him to Cheraw, his first 
appointment — an illustration of the theory of the 
eternal cycle that brings things back to the same 
condition of former times. The people were 
jubilant over the appointment. They received 
their old pastor with open hearts. Here he 
remained three years. Here he was again won- 
derfully blessed of the Lord. Tlie charge pros- 
pered beyond that of any administration since he 
had left tliere years before. Here he and his 
family were bereaved of the favorite of the 
house — a briglit 2-year-old boy — who departed 
this life and took up residence in Zion, city of 
our God. How this bereavement tried their 
souls! Other than prayerful meditation and 

26 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

resignation, two incidents were providentially 
sent as solaces. One in the person of the minis- 
ter who conducted the burial services, who 
selected as a text these beautiful words, "My 
Beloved is Gone Down Into His Garden to 
Gather Lilies." — Song of Solomon. Such sug- 
gestive words were to them fraught with the 
fragrance of heaven. Ever after, in thinking of 
their little boy, these words loom uppermost in 
their minds. The other was from the pen of 
Bishop Foster, while on the Red Sea, homeward 
bound. When as a picture there loomed up 
before him all of his life's work and experience 
as a minister, he portrayed in graphic style his 
trials, struggles and the loss of a child, the first 
of that kind experienced by the young itinerant 
(himself), etc., which was almost an exact repre- 
sentation of the feelings and experiences of this 
family. To them this article was a message of 
condolence divinely sent. After serving a full 
Methodistic term here, he was appointed by 
Bishop Andrews to his present place of labor, 
Aiken, S. C, which, because of the peculiar cir- 
cumstances surrounding it, is the most important 
appointment in the Conference at the present 

time. 

Brother Lowery is tall and of commanding 
appearance. Suave in manner, quiet in disposi- 
tion and devotional. His sermons are models of 

27 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

pulpit preparation. His style is more of the 
exposito-textual than that of the topical. He 
throws his whole soul into the delivery of a ser- 
mon, and not unfrequently somebody is either 
converted or so deeply impressed that conversion 
follows as a result of his powerful appeals. 

In recent years he has developed taste of a 
literary nature. His papers in the columns of 
The Witness are widely read, and the readers of 
that journal have formed their own opinions as 
to their merits. 

Twice has he been named as anniversary orator 
at Claflin University, and twice he has honored 
the occasion by efforts that surpassed even the 
expectations of his friends. He never sought nor 
desired it, yet the university has honored itself 
by conferring the degree A. M. upon him. If a 
degree is a recognition of worth, then it has 
been worthily bestowed in this instance. He is, 
however, that same modest, unassuming preacher 
of the gospel. 

As a writer, he is painstaking, careful, scruti- 
nizing. As a student, he is methodical, discrim- 
inating, industrious. As a preacher, he is forci- 
ble, logical, convincing. As a worker, he is inde- 
fatigable, energetic, pushing. As a financier, he 
is successful and skillful. As a Christian, he is 
sympathetic, consistent and spiritually-minded. 
God helping, we predict for him a career of use- 
fulness to the church, his fellow men and the 
cause of Christ. 

28 



CHAPTER I. 

The Old Plantation. 

At a point about eight miles southeast of 
Mayesville, S. C, and about the same distance 
southwest of Lynchburg, is a settlement known 
as "Shiloh." There was a church located there 
which was called "the Shiloh Church''; hence the 
settlement took its name from the church. It 
was a Methodist Church, and belonged to that 
denomination known as the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, South. Not far from the church was a 
store owned by a man whose name was Chris. 
Player. Mr. Player kept the postofiSce, and here 
the planters for miles around got their mail. It 
was a convenient place for a church and also for 
the store and postoffice, for they were located 
near where the public road forked at two places. 

Just about two miles from this church, due 
north across the swamp, called Pudden Swamp, 
was the plantation which forms the scene of my 
story. I do not know the number of acres this 
farm contained (that is a matter of little conse- 
quence any way), but suffice it to say that it was 
a good sized plantation. 

But how shall I begin to describe this wonder- 
ful old plantation? As I write the scene comes 

29 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

fresh before my vision. I imagine I can see tlie 
old farm house, wliere tlie white folks lived, 
nestled in the midst of a clump of stately old 
water oaks. There was a front and back piazza 
and there was a brick chimney at each end. It 
was a one-story building, with an ell running 
back, in which was located the dining room. 
About thirty feet east of the building was the 
kitchen, and about the same distance in the rear 
of the dining room stood the smoke-house and the 
store-room. That smoke-house was never with- 
out meat and lard, and that store-room con- 
tained barrels of flour, barrels of sugar, barrels 
of molasses and sacks of coffee from one year to 
another. And the corn, oh, there was no end to 
that. There were several barns, some big and 
some little, but when the corn was gathered and 
the "corn-shucking" was over and the crop was 
housed, the barns were full to overflowing. They 
would remind one of Pharaoh's barns in Egypt 
at the end of the seven years of plenty. There 
was very little cotton raised on that plantation 
in those days. Four or six bales were considered 
a good crop. But the corn, peas, potatoes, hogs, 
cattle, sheep and goats, there was no end to 
these. It was a rare thing to buy anything to 
eat on that plantation save sugar and coffee. 
Shoes were bought, but the clothing for the white 

folks and the slaves was made at home. It was 

• 

30 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

the good old "homespun." On rainy days, when 
it was too w^et to do outdoor work, the men and 
boys got out corn, as they said in plantation lan- 
guage, for the mill, while the women and girls 
carded and spun cotton and wool. A task of so 
many hanks of yarn was given them for a day's 
work, which was a reasonable task, and when it 
was finished they carded and spun for them- 
selves. They more or less completed their tasks 
before night, and by working after night they 
were enabled to do almost as much for them- 
selves as they did for the white folks during the 
day. The weaving was almost invariably done 
by the young white ladies, or by some one of the 
servant girls who was taught especially to do it. 
Thus everybody on the place w^as kept well 
clothed, both the white folks and the slaves. 
That which the slave women carded and spun at 
night was their own, and they usually hired their 
young missus, or some other w^hite woman of tlie 
neighborhood, to weave it into cloth for them, 
and thus they always had good, clean clothing 
for Sunday wear, so that they could go to 
"meetin' " without embarrassment. 

On the east side of the white folks' house was 
the orchard. It occupied a space of about five 
or six acres and contained a large number of 
fruit trees of every description. There could be 
found the apple in variety, the peach, the pear, 

31 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

the apricot and the plum. On the west side was 
a large vegetable garden, which contained, in 
addition to the supply of vegetables for the table, 
several varieties of grapes. The arbors built for 
these grapes were large, strong and well cared 
for. And the slaves got their portion of all these 
delicious fruits. Of course, they were not 
allowed to steal them (but this does not signify 
that they never resorted to this method of obtain- 
ing fruit), but they could, and did, get fruit by 
asking for it. 

At some distance in the rear of the white folks^ 
house stood the barns and other outhouses, and 
a little to the east of these was the large horse 
and cow lot and the stables. In front was a 
beautiful avenue skirted on each side with lovely 
oaks of different varieties. And, strange to say, 
about three hundred yards in front of the white 
folks' house, and to the east of this beautiful 
avenue, was located the "negro quarters.'' On 
most plantations in those days the "negro quar- 
ters" was located in the rear, or at least some 
distance from the white folks' house. But not 
so in this case, for these were located in front, 
but a little distance from the house and from the 
avenue. But there is another thing that goes to 
show that the owners and managers of tliis plan- 
tation were people of education, culture and 
refinement, and that was even the fields were 

32 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

given names. At some distance eastward from 
the "big house'' was a large field called "Sykes 
field.'' In the midst of this field stood a large 
and beautiful walnut tree. It was customary to 
plant wheat, oats or rye in this field, and when 
the crop was harvested, which usually took place 
in June, the field was then made a pasture. 
Every field of the plantation had a good fence 
around it, and after the crops were taken off the 
horses, cattle and sheep were turned in. It was 
a charming sight to see these creatures during 
the early morning grazing in different parts of 
the "Sykes field," and when the sun waxed hot 
they would gather themselves together and lie 
down under this tree and rest. And in the cool 
of the afternoon they would start out again. 
This was repeated day by day during the sum- 
mer season. Still east of the "Sykes field," and 
across the swamp, were two large fields called 
the upper and lower "Forks." North of these 
was another called the "Island field." Then there 
were the "New Ground field," the "Gin House 
field," the "Middle field," the "Graveyard field" 
and the "West field." It was necessary that these 
fields should all have names so that it could be 
ascertained where the hands were working, or 
where the horses or cows were being pastured. 

There were six horses and two mules on the 
place, and they, too, all had names. There was 

33 

3 — o. p. 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

^^Old Reuben/' "Old Gray," "Old Lep," "Fannie/' 
"John" and "Charlie." John and Charlie were 
young horses raised on the place. The mules 
were "Jack" and "Ginnie." Jack was a noble 
fellow, but Ginnie was as wicked as she could 
be. She had as many devils in her as did Mary 
Magdalene before she met Christ. Ginnie did 
very well when hitched to the wagon with Jack 
or some other horse by her side, but under the 
saddle she would not carry double to save your 
life. And pull a plow, that depended on the state 
of her mind. If she felt like it she would do it, 
but if she did not she would kick things to pieces 
in a jiffy. When that mule was foaled she was 
as good as it is possible for a mule to be, but the 
negro who plowed her spoilt her. And if Ginnie 
had been granted the gift of speech as was the 
good fortune of Balaam's ass, she doubtless 
would have said to that negro and to the rest of 
mankind in the language of Shakespeare : "Vil- 
lainous company hath been the spoil of me." 

It will be noticed that the word "old" pre- 
cedes the names of these horses. This does not 
signify that they were naturally old, but it was 
simply a designation given to them by the slaves, 
and the white folks accepted it and so styled the 
horses also. The slaves were adepts at giving 
nicknames to animals, to each other and even to 



34 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

the white folks. But the white folks seldom 
caught on to the nicknames given to them. 

I cannot close this chapter without speaking 
of the adjoining plantations. To the north was 
Mr. Isaac Keels and his father, Mr. Billie Keels; 
east was Mr. Alex. Lemons ; south was Mr. Chris. 
Player, and west was Mr. Fullwood and Mr. 
Jack Player. The latter was a brother of Mr. 
Chris. Player. These all were slaveholders, but 
none of them were cruel to their slaves. They 
knew that the slaves were valuable property, and, 
therefore, took good care of them. Mr. Fullwood 
died, leaving a widow and a number of small 
children, and the estate could not be settled up 
until the youngest child became of age. This 
made it necessary to put the plantation in the 
hands of an overseer, and that overseer was Mr. 
Ranee Player, a brother of Mr. Chris. Player and 
Jack Player. He was pretty strict in his discip- 
line, but not cruel. Such things as bloodhounds 
and nigger traders were scarce in that commu- 
nity. I will not say that they were never seen, 
but they were scarce. It was a rare thing for 
slaves to be bought and sold in that neighbor- 
hood. 

I quote a couple of verses from "Lyrics of 
Love," by Rev. Charles Roundtree Dinkins, a 
negro poet. The book was published by The 
State PuhlisJiing Company of Columbia, S. C. : 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

"Give me the farm, where grows the corn, 
Shouting with tassel gold unworn, 

While breezes roll; 
Where smiles the fleecy staple, white, 
Like snowy fields of Eden bright 

Around the soul. 

"Give me the farm — the cabin dear, 
With the fireplace so spacious there — 

Full five feet wide — 
With the backlog just burning down, 
Potatoes sweet and 'possum brown 

Right by my side." 



36 



CHAPTER II. 

The Proprietor of the Old Plantation. 

The owner of this farm was a remarkable char- 
acter. His name was Mr. John Frierson, but he 
was called by his intimate friends "Jack Frier- 
son." There was another John Frierson, who 
lived in the upper part of Sumter County, but 
this one was sometimes alluded to as "John 
Frierson on Pudden Swamp," to distinguish him 
from the other Mr. John Frierson. His age I 
do not know, but he lived to be quite an old man. 

He was a Christian and was, perhaps, the lead- 
ing man in the Shiloh Methodist Church. I am 
told that he was educated for the Christian min- 
istry in early life, .but he never entered that holy 
calling. But he became a class leader, and this 
was the only sacred office he would accept, and 
he filled it well and to the satisfaction of the 
ministers and the members of the Shiloh Church. 
It was said that he was the best educated man in 
all that region of country. He was a very fine 
elocutionist and one of the best readers that ever 
opened a book or held a newspaper. During the 
exciting times that led up to the War Between 
the States, and during the four years of that 
bloody struggle, the white neighbors— and many 

37 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

of them were men and women of wealth and 
intelligence — used to come to tlie home of Mr. 
Frierson to hear him read the papers and to dis- 
cuss with him the neAvs and the burning ques- 
tions of that day. 

Mr. Frierson was married three times. By his 
first wife there was born but one cliild — a boy — 
whom he named Mack; by his second wife there 
were born five children — three girls and two 
boys, and by his last wife there was no issue. 
The children by his second wife were named as 
follows: Mary Ann, Isabella, Rush, Adolphus 
and Janie. I have given them in the order of 
their birth, as I remember it. These all grew up 
to manhood and womanhood. The following 
lived to be married off: Mack, Isabella, Adol- 
phus and Janie. 

Mr. Mack married a lady from Chesterfield 
County whose maiden name was Miss Martha 
Garland. Her father's name was Mr. Jesse Gar- 
land. He was a farmer, owned a few slaves, but 
his daughter — Miss Martha — was handsome and 
considered a belle in society. Miss Isabella mar- 
ried Mr. Ransom Garland, tlie brotlier of Miss 
Martha. Mr. Adolphus married tlie daughter of 
Mr. Billie Keels, known as "Little Billie Keels." 
Miss Janie married a Mr. Kirby and afterwards 
settled in Columbia, S. C, as I have been 
informed. I also learned that she has some soia».<, 

38 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

and possibly grandsons living there now, and 
are merchants in that city. Miss Mary Ann 
never married, but lived to be a very pious and 
happy old maid. She became housekeeper for 
her father after the death of her mother and 
until he married again, which was his third and 
last marriage. Her own mother was a very 
devout Christian, and spared no pains in train- 
ing up her children in the way they should go, 
so that when they became old they did not depart 

from it. 

Mr. Eush grew up to a beautiful young man- 
hood and became quite a favorite among the 
young ladies of the community, but the war 
broke out and there was a call for volunteers, 
and he was' among the first to enter the Confed- 
erate army. His leaving the old plantation to 
go to the front was a sad occasion. Well do I 
remember the morning. The handsome young 
soldier in a beautiful new uniform of gray with 
shining buttons bade the family and servants 
o:ood-bye, never to return. In less than two years 
he fell on one of the battlefields of Virginia, and 
sacrificed his life for the cause that is so dear 
to every Southern white man. When the news 
of his death reached the old plantation there was 
mourning and weeping among the white folks 
and the slaves. He was a good young man, and 
was much beloved by all. His body was never 

39 

athor:Rev.T.E.Lowery.Life onthe Old Plantation 

in the Ante-Bellura Days.Acopy of this book 
is in the Library of Congress, • 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

brought home, but was buried in that far-off hind 
along with his comrades in battle. But he was a 
Christian, having been brought up in a religious 
atmosphere, and by devout parents, and, on the 
other side of the mystic river, he has met tliem, 
where peace forever abides and where happiness 
is the lot of all such. 

"Asleep in Jesus ! far from thee 
Thy kindred and their graves may be; 
But thine is still a blessed sleep, 
From which none ever wakes to weep." 

Mr. Mack, the oldest son, was also a devout 
young man. Like Jacob of old, he was a man of 
prayer. There was a place in the thicket in the 
rear of the lot where he resorted for private com- 
munion with his Maker every evening at twilight. 
When the day's work was done, and wlien the 
horses and mules were stabled and fed, he would 
steal away to his sacred retreat and pour out his 
soul in prayer. Many were the times wlien the 
writer of these lines, then a boy of twelve, stood 
in the road just a short distance away from his 
place of prayer, when the stars were being 
revealed in the heavens and the crimson grad- 
ually fading away from the sunset skies, and 
listened alternately to the plaintive sounds of 
the whippoorwill and the audible voice of prayer, 
which w^as tremulous with emotion and fre- 



40 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

quently accompanied with tears. The scene was 
awe-inspiring to the inquiring mind and to the 
reverent soul, such as mine was at that time. I 
must confess that I scarcely knew what it all 
meant. But I sure did love to hear Mr. Mack 
pray and the whippoorwill hollo. But, thank 
God, I have lived long enough to know what 
prayer means. 

But let us consider our subject a little further. 
Mr. Frierson invariably observed family worship 
twice a day — morning and evening. The Scrip- 
tures were read in course at each service. Sing- 
ing was usually omitted except on special occa- 
sions, when perhaps there was a minister pres- 
ent, one who could sing. But he was never in 
such a hurry that he did not have time for family 
devotions. It mattered not in what season of 
the year and how busy they might be in the farm, 
his prayers he would say. And it was always a 
treat to hear that man read his Bible and then 
to take the different members of his family to a 
throne of grace. And his slaves were not forgot- 
ten during these warm, fervent and eloquent 
intercessary prayers. 

Mr. Frierson always looked carefully after the 
morals of his slaves. I have already stated that 
lie did not allow them to steal if he could possi- 
bly prevent it. He did ever^^thing he could to 
teach them to be truthful, to be honest, and to 

41 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

be morally upright. He had it understood on 
his plantation that there should be no little bas- 
tard slaves there. He gave it out that they were 
not wanted. When the boys and girls reached a 
marriageable age he advised them to marry, but 
marry some one on the plantation, and he would 
see to it that they should not be separated. But 
if they married some one from the adjoining 
plantations, they might be separated eventually 
by the "nigger traders,'' as they were called in 
that day and time. But Mr. Frierson was never 
known to separate a man and his wife by sale or 
by trading. Nor was he ever known to separate 
motlier and child. He did not believe in this 
kind of business. 

Mr. Frierson was a good man and taught both 
his children and servants to fear God and keep 
His commandments. Tlie Lord said of Abraham, 
"For I know him that he will command his chil- 
dren and his household after him, and they shall 
keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judg- 
ment." These words may fitly be applied to our 
subject — Mr. Frierson — for he certainly emu- 
lated the example of the Father of the faithful. 

There were some free colored people in the 
neighborhood. Some of these were free-born, 
but others bouglit their freedom. But all of 
tliem, according to the then existing laws, had 
to have some white man to be tlieir guardian. 

42 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

That is, some white man to look after their inter- 
est to see that they got their rights, and to pro- 
tect them, if necessary. And Mr. Frierson was 
chosen by some of these free colored people as 
their guardian. He was a kind-hearted man and 
never failed to respond to the call of distress. It 
mattered not whether it came from the poor 
slave or from the more fortunate freeman or 
from the oppressed white brother, he had an ear 
to hear the call, a heart to respond and hands to 
help. As Alfred Tennyson said of the Duke of 
Wellington, so I say of our subject: ''The path 
of duty was the way to glory." 

He seemed not to care what men thought of 
him, but his whole aim was to please his Maker. 
He regarded the voice of conscience as the voice 
of God, and to the warnings and mandates of 
that voice he was always true. 

He was greatly beloved by all his neighbors. 
His children, his slaves and all his white asso- 
ciates loved and admired him. And when time 
shall be lost in the brilliant dawn of eternity's 
morning, many shall rise up and call him blessed. 

"Asleep ! asleep ! when soft and low 
The patient watchers come and go, 

Their loving vigil keeping; 
When from the dear eyes fades the light, 
And the glad spirit takes its flight, 

We speak of death as 'sleeping.' 

43 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

•'Or when, as dies the orb of day, 
The aged Christian sinks away, 

And the lone mourner weepeth; 
When thus the pilgrim goes to rest. 
With meek hands folded on his breast, 
And his last sigh a prayer confessed— 
We say of such, 'He deepeth.' " 

Lucy A. Bennett. 



44 



CHAPTER III. 
Granny^ the Cook^ on the Old Plantation. 

The number that constituted the body of 
slaves on this plantation was not very large, but 
they were a fine-looking set of human beings. 
They were warmly clad, well fed and humanely 
treated. And, as forty-two years have passed since 
"the breaking up of the old plantation,'' it is 
hardly possible that the writer should remember 
the name of every slave born and raised on that 
place. And yet he can recall the most of them 
and the image of their person still yet lingers 
in his memory. 

Here they are: There were Uncle Fridie and 
Aunt Nancy, his wife; Uncle Isom and Aunt 
Tena, his spouse. There were two young women 
on the plantation — Namie and Peggie — who, 
after marriage, became very fruitful. Namie 
married a man by the name of Tom and Peggie 
a man by the name of Sam. Tom belonged to a 
Mr. Durant, and Sam to a Mr. Singletary. 
Namie became the mother of some nine children 
and Peggie some twelve or thirteen. Namie's 
children were Melton, Sam, Nellie, Tom, Kellie, 
Jimmie, Vinie, Martha and Joe. Peggie's were 
Prince, Caroline, Sydney, Mary, Henry, Eliza- 

45 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

beth, Aleck, Sammie and four or five others 
whose names I cannot now recall. Nearly all of 
these grew up to manhood and womanhood and 
marired off, and themselves became fathers and 
mothers. And when the Emancipation Procla- 
mation was issued by Mr. Lincoln, there were 
perhaps forty or fifty slaves on this plantation. 

But one of the most important characters 
among them all was Granny, the cook. She was 
slightly lame in one leg. When she was a little 
girl she and other children were playing in a bed 
of deep sand. She ran and jumped into the sand, 
and as her feet sunk into it she suddenly turned 
around and this twisted her leg at the knee. The 
injury at first did not seem to be serious and no 
doctor was called, but her leg grew crooked and 
she became lame for life. Because of this lame- 
ness she was favored to the extent that she was 
not made a field hand, but was kept about the 
house and taught to cook. And right well did 
she learn her trade; for she became one of the 
most expert cooks in all that region of country. 
And she took special pride in her profession, 
especially when company came to visit the white 
folks. All they had to do was to give Granny 
the materials and tell her what to do with them, 
and it was done. She always carefully followed 
the instructions given by Mrs. Frierson or Miss 
Mary Ann, and all was right. When that break- 

40 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

fast, that dinner or that supper was sent into the 
dining room, especially when company was "in 
the house," if the reader had been privileged to 
look upon it, or to sniff its delicious odor, he 
would have thought that there was a Parisian 
caterer who presided over that kitchen. 

Mr. Frierson's house was the preacher's home. 
Like the Shunammite of old, he set apart a room 
in his house and denominated it the ''prophet's 
chamber." He never forgot to entertain strang- 
ers, knowing that thereby some had entertained 
angels unawares. Among the preachers who 
served the Lynchburg circuit were: Rev. L. M. 
Little, Rev. M. A. Connolly, Rev. W. L. Pegues, 
Rev. W. W. Mood, Rev. P. F. Kistler, and Rev. 
F. Auld. These were all members of the South 
Carolina Conference of the M. E. Church, South. 
There were two eminent local preachers who 
preached acceptably to the people, namely : Rev. 
Jesse Smith and Rev. William Smith. These two 
ministers were brothers, and the latter, Rev. 
William Smith, was the father of three distin- 
guished Carolinians, namely : the late Bishop A. 
Coke Smith, Rev. Charles B. Smith, and the Hon. 
E. D. Smith. But whenever these ministers 
would preach at the Shiloh church they would 
invariably come to Mr. Frierson's either for din- 
ner or to pass the night. And when Granny, 
the cook, was notified that the pastor was com- 

47 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

ing, she would be delighted and made extensive 
preparations in the kitchen and did her best. All 
of Mr. Frierson's guests soon learned who the 
cook was, and seldom failed to give expressions 
of satisfaction when they left the dining room. 
Because of Granny's skill, Mr. Frierson did not 
have much trouble in persuading his pastors and 
friends to accept the hospitality of his home. 

Granny could not be excelled in making and 
baking bread. Her biscuits, her liglit bread and 
her Johnnie cakes were, to use a modern expres- 
sion, ^^just out of sight." Keader, do you know 
what a "Johnnie cake" is? I am afraid that you 
don't. If you have never inhaled the odor nor 
tasted a Johnnie cake I am sure I shall have some 
difficulty in making you understand what it is. 
It was not baked in an oven nor in a stove, but 
before the fire. 

A board was made out of oak, hickory or ash 
wood. It was about six inches wide and twelve 
inches long, and highly polished. The ingre- 
dients of the Johnnie cake were: corn meal and 
sweet potatoes for flour, butter for lard and pure 
sweet milk for water. I think eggs were also 
used and some other seasoning, which I cannot 
now recall. These things were carefully mixed in 
and then the dough was spread out over the John- 
nie cake board and placed on the hearth before an 
oak fire. The board was sliglitly tilted so as to 

48 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

throw tlie cake squarely before the fire. It 
would soon ^'brown," as they said, and wlien 
Granny pronounced it done, the very sight, to 
say nothing of the odor, w^ould make anybody's 
mouth water. Oh, how those preachers did like 
Johnnie cake! Sometimes they would send for 
Granny to come into "the house" and shake her 
hand and congratulate this dusky queen of the 
kitchen. 

It is said that women have a horror for snakes, 
and it is true. Ever since Mother Eve was 
beguiled by a serpent, all of her daughters — it 
matters not what their color may be, whether 
white, black or brown — have an awful dread of 
snakes. This intense hatred of the serpent tribe 
on the part of the women is of divine origin. In 
the Book it is written: "I will put enmity 
between thee and the woman and between thy 
seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head and 
thou Shalt bruise his heel." Thus spake the Lord 
to the serpent in the Garden of Eden. 

But I want to tell the reader a story about 
Granny and the snake. The kitchen where 
Granny did the cooking was a small board build- 
ing that set some distance from the dining room. 
It was about fifteen feet wide by twenty feet 
long. It had two doors — the doors being in the 
sides and opposite each other — and two win- 
dows. The building was unceiled. It was a 

49 
4 — O. P. 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

mere shell. There was not even a loft overhead. 
This made it a den for rats, and, in consequence 
of this, a place for snakes. The rats came in 
search of food and the snakes came in search of 
rats. 

One evening just about dark Granny was get- 
ting supper, and while stooping down at the fire- 
place a great big chicken snake was chasing a 
rat on the plate above. They turned the corner 
and while passing over the fireplace where 
Granny was stooping, the snake fell full length 
across her neck and instantly wrapped itself 
around her neck. It is needless to say that 
Granny alarmed the place. She hollered, she 
screamed; the dogs barked and the children 
cried. The white folks and the colored folks all 
came running to see what was the matter. 
Granny left the kitchen and took the yard, and 
the yard was a very large one, too. Doubtless the 
snake would have fled from fright, but Granny 
clutched it with both hands — one hand on each 
side of her neck. The men folks could not catch 
her to release her from the snake until she 
fainted, then they killed the snake and Granny 
soon came to. She was not bitten but greatly 
frightened. The white women had to finisli get- 
ting tlie supper, while Granny tried to get her- 
self together again, which she eventually suc- 
ceeded in doing. But this was an experience 

50 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

which Granny never forgot. In subsequent years 
she used to sit down with a dozen or more chil- 
dren at her feet and relate to them, in graphic 
language, her experience with that old chicken 
snake. And oh, how the little ones used to ply 
her with questions! But she answered all of 
them to their satisfaction. 

But Granny was great along other lines and 
for other things than that of cooking. It has 
already been stated that when Mr. Frierson lost 
his first wife she left a little motherless baby 
behind. It was a little boy, and his name was 
Mack. But Granny came to the child's rescue 
and acted a mother's part. She raised him. She 
prepared his food and fed him. She bathed him, 
dressed him, took him on her lap, tied his shoes, 
combed his hair and taught him his prayers. He 
slept in Granny's own bed with his lily white 
arms around her black neck. Little Mack loved 
Granny and Granny loved little Mack. And 
when he became a man he always entertained a 
high regard for her, and loved her to the end. 

Granny, though she was black, considered her- 
self the mistress on that plantation. She thought 
that her color was no fault of hers, but circum- 
stances (part of the time Mr. Frierson having 
no wife) and efficiency, made her head of the 
household. When Granny gave orders those 



51 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

orders had to be obeyed. White and colored 
respected and obeyed her. 

Granny took great delight in caring for the 
chickens and the turkeys. She also gave the pigs 
about the yard some attention. All the waste 
from the kitchen was carefully saved for them. 
She saw that the cows were milked regularly. 
She kept the milk piggins and pans clean and 
nice, and did the churning herself. Consequently 
Mr. Frierson always had a plenty of fatted fowls 
for his table and a pig to roast whenever he felt 
like it. He also had an abundance of nice milk 
and butter. Granny took special pride in pro- 
viding these things, and her master felt grateful 
to her for it. 

Granny lived to see Emancipation, and, after 
becoming free, was taken by her son-in-law to his 
own hired home, where she was tenderly cared 
for until the angels came and escorted her soul 
home to that "happy land far, far away.'' She 
lived the life of the righteous, and died in the 
Christian faith. 



62 



CHAPTER IV. 
A 'Possum Hunt on the Old Plantation. 

There was a good supply of fresh water fish in 
Pudden Swamp in ante-bellum days. The varie- 
ties known and caught in those days were suck- 
ers, pikes, jacks, perches and catfish. But the 
slaves hadn't much time for fishing; they had to 
work during the day. But they were very fond 
of hunting coons and 'possums, and even this 
pastime had to be gratified at night. 

The fiesh of these animals, when properly pre- 
pared, makes a very savory and palatable dish. 
The method of cooking the 'possum or coon 
was this : They first parboiled it whole and then 
roasted or baked it brown. Sweet potatoes were 
also boiled and skinned and roasted around it. 
The slaves were very fond of such dishes. 

As has already been remarked, the young men 
had a natural fondness for hunting. Like the 
sporting men of all races, there were some slaves 
who possessed a natural fondness for the chase. 

There were four dogs belonging to the white 
folks and perhaps one or two belonging to the 
slaves. These were all trained by the slaves. 
Til ere was old Sumter, named for General Sum- 
ter of Revolutionary fame, and old Bull, Rip and 

53 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

Tiz. The last two were full-blood fox hounds, 
male and female. Better 'possum and coon dogs 
never entered the woods. Then there was old 
Toler. He was half bull and belonged to Tom. 
He was the fighter. When the other dogs failed 
he would swing to a 'possum or coon to the last. 
A 'possum was not much at fighting, unless he 
was caught in his den, then it took all the dogs 
to bring him out, and often all failed but old 
Toler. He would bring him out or die. Conse- 
quently the boys seldom left him behind. His 
presence was necessary to do the figliting. 

'Possums usually inhabit the woodland and 
coons the swamps. The boys thought that they 
would like to have a 'possum for their Sunday 
morning's breakfast, and yet they had been told 
by Uncle Fridie and Uncle Isom not to go hunting 
on Saturday night, for, as the holy Sabbath 
began at midnight and as they had no way of 
telling when midnight came, they would be likel^^ 
to hunt on Sunday. They owned no watches, 
but were told that when the seven stars reached 
a point directly overhead that it was midnight. 
Such was the case at that season of tlie year. 

After supper the boys started out. The only 
things necessary to achieve a successful liunt w^as 
the dogs and two or tliree good, sliarp axes with 
which to cut down the trees when the dogs would 
tree the game. They first went to the woods for 

54 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

a 'possum hunt, but, after wandering away for 
two miles, the dogs failed to strike a trail. They 
then concluded to go to the swamp (Pudden 
Swamp), for a coon hunt. Away then went, 
holding in their hands bright pitch pine torches. 
Now and then they would give to the dogs a keen 
coon hunters' whoop, but there came no response 
from them. On they went in the dark and dense 
swamp, whooping up the dogs. Presently the 
clear, full yelp of old Bull was heard. Sydney 
said, "It is a rabbit, for old Bull likes to run 
rabbits." "Wait and see," said Tom. Sam, who 
was the oldest in the crowd, and who had more 
experience in the hunting business than all the 
others, said : "I am waiting on old Tiz, for she 
never runs rabbits at night. If she barks then I 
will know it's a coon." Again the boys whooped 
to the dogs. Just then a long, rolling bark was 
heard, such as a full-blood fox hound would 
make when it strikes a warm trail. Sam said: 
"Boys, it is old Tiz, and I believe it is a coon. 
Come on." The torch-bearers snuffed their 
torches and quickened their steps. Again the 
boys whooped. By this time all four of the dogs, 
as the hunters used to say, were speaking. Old 
Bull, old Sumter, Rip and Tiz. The sound of 
their barking and yelping was like different 
voices singing the four parts of music. There 
• was the soprano, alto, tenor and bass. Again 

55 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

the boys whooped. On they went trying to keep 
up with the dogs. The fellows got lively as they 
thought of the fun just ahead of them, when they 
would have the pleasure of witnessing a great 
coon-dog fight. But all of a sudden every dog 
ceased barking and the hunters stopped. They 
did not know what to make of it. Again they 
whooped, but there was no response on the part 
of tlie dogs. They listened in silent wonder. 
Presently the dogs came in, one by one, with their 
tails drooping between their hind legs. The 
boys noticed that their bristles were all up- 
turned and they whined at their feet. The hunt- 
ers became frightened and they began to think. 
Tom said, "Boys, perhaps it is after midnight 
and we are hunting on Sunday." Instantly all 
eyes were upturned as they peered into the 
heavens looking for the seven stars, and to their 
surprise the seven stars had passed the zenith 
and swung far over into the western sky. Then 
they remembered what Uncle Fridie and Uncle 
Isom had told them about hunting on Sunday. 
Immediately they all concluded that God was 
angry with them for desecrating His holy day, 
and allowed the devil to come after them. It 
is needless to say that they left the swamp 
unceremoniously, for such was tlie case. Tliey 
ran nearly every step of the way home, and when 
they got their breath they awoke the whole negro 

56 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

quarters and related their wonderful but very 
unpleasant experience. All the slaves believed 
that it was the devil sent after those wicked 
boys, but when the white folks heard of it they 
said it was a bear, for jNIr. Adolphus saw one just 
a few days before wliile squirrel hunting in that 
region. But the slaves all held to their belief 
and still contended tliat it was the devil and that 
he came in the form of a big black bear. Suffice 
it to say that it cured tlie boys, and from that 
time on tliere was no more 'possum and coon 
hunting by tlie slaves on Saturday night in all 
that part of the country. 



57 



CHAPTEK V. 
A Wedding on the Old Plantation. 

The slave young men and young women were 
like the young people of all other races, they fell 
in love and they married. Their love affairs, 
their courtship and their marriage were of the 
simplest form. They could not read nor write, 
therefore notes and letters did not figure in their 
love experiences. But they loved all the same. 
Cupid managed to kindle the divine spark in 
their breasts, and he had a way to fan it to a 
flame. 

Love, as every one who has loved knows, has a 
language peculiarly its own. And it is not a lan- 
guage of words, but rather a language like that 
of free masonry. It is a language of grips, of 
signs and of symbols. When two young slaves 
fell in love with each other the young man would 
make it known on his part by a gentle pressure 
of the young woman's hand as they shook hands. 
Or lie would give her a peculiar or affectionate 
smile and accompany liis action with a loving 
gift. And in tlie majority of cases the gift con- 
sisted in the most beautiful red apple that he 
could secure from the orcliard. The girl would 
rarely eat the apple until the Sabbath was passed 

58 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

and until it had become mellow. The presenta- 
tion would likely be made on the Sabbath as they 
went or returned from church, and the girl 
invariably carried the apple in her hand or 
wrapped it in her handkerchief. As she gazed 
upon its beauty and inhaled its fragrance, she 
would be reminded of the tender love of her 
sweetheart. 

When the young man became satisfied that he 
had won the heart of his girl, he then proceeded 
gently and modestly to ask her to become his 
wife. This was called among the slaves "popping 
the question.'' Having secured her consent, he 
next secured the consent of her parents, if she 
had any, and the consent of his master and her 
master, if she lived on another plantation. This 
ended it. He was considered married, and he 
took her to be his wife. This was the usual way. 
There was no religious wedding ceremony and 
no marriage supper. 

But there were a few isolated cases where the 
slaves were allowed to marry in due form and 
were given a wedding supper. These were the 
more prominent or favorite slaves, such as but- 
lers, coachmen, nurses, chambermaids or cooks, 
sometimes enjoyed this privilege. Sam, the fore- 
man on Mr. Frierson's plantation, was granted 
such a favor. He married a girl whose name was 
Bettie. She belonged to Mr. Isaac Keels, who 

59 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

owned the adjoining plantation just north of 
Mr. Frierson's. 

The time was Saturday night and the occasion 
was a great one. Careful and elaborate prepara- 
tions were made. The Friersons on Sam's side, 
and the Keelses on Bettie's side, co-operated to 
make the wedding a success. Also tlie relatives 
of the bride and the groom came forward to ren- 
der assistance. 

There were six bridesmaids and six grooms- 
men. The bridesmaids were all dressed in white 
and the groomsmen in black. Most of these cos- 
tumes were borrowed — some from the white folks 
and some from the colored. The marriage feast 
was a bountiful affair. A good size shote, the 
gift of Mr. Frierson, was nicely barbecued. Uncle 
Tom, the father of the groom, was an expert at 
barbecuing. He did a lot of it for the white 
folks, especially on occasions of general musters, 
weddings, picnics, etc. Dozens of chickens were 
roasted, potted and fried. An abundance of 
sweet potato custards, apple pies and cakes were 
baked, and several large pots of rice were boiled. 
Every plantation within a radius of five miles 
was represented at tliat wedding. The marriage 
took place at the bride's home, or, I might say, 
in tlie negro quarters on Mr. Isaac Keels' place. 
Several wliite folks were present, especially of 
the Friersons and the Keelses. Uncle John 

60 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

Woods, an ante-bellum negro preacher, was 
engaged to perform the marriage ceremony. He 
was a very intelligent old man. He could read 
well and talk fluently. He was considered a 
great preacher by the slaves, and many of the 
devout white folks were fond of hearing him. He 
wore black pants and a black shad-belly or 
pigeon-tail coat and white vest. It was a second- 
hand outfit, and was the gift of his old master, 
Mr. Woods. He also wore a black silk beaver 
hat that looked rather seedy because of its 
extreme age and exposure to the elements. He 
wore a stiff standing white collar that spanned 
his neck and touched his ear on each side, and a 
white tie. But, withal, he had the appearance of 
a distinguished negro clergyman of ante-bellum 
days. 

The marriage ceremony took place in the yard. 
At some distance in front of the door of the two- 
room cabin was placed a small table with a clean 
white cloth over it and on which were two brass 
candlesticks. In these burned two tallow dips 
or candles. Behind this table stood the preacher. 
Near him sat Jerry Goodman in a chair with a 
fiddle, who played the wedding march. The wait- 
ers, as they were called, filed out in couples, a 
man and a woman walking together. The groom 
and his b^ide followed in the rear, with the bride 
gracefully leaning upon the arm of her beloved. 

61 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

As now, SO then, everybody tried to gain a view 
of tlie pair. Perfect silence reigned while Uncle 
John read, in a full, clear voice, the Methodist 
marriage ceremony. At the end the preacher was 
the first to kiss tlie bride, the groom the second, 
then followed kisses from all the bridesmaids and 
groomsmen. This was the custom in ante-bellum 
days among the slaves. 

The next thing in order was the supper. Two 
tables had been built on different sides of the 
yard, one for the white folks and the other for 
the colored. The table for the white folks was 
about twelve feet long and three feet wide; the 
one for the colored was about twenty feet long 
and three wide. Clean white cloths were spread 
over these tables and plates were placed thereon 
as close as persons could stand. Food was put 
upon these tables until, if they were things of 
life, they would literally have groaned under the 
burdens of good things. Uncle John was placed 
at the head of the colored people's table with the 
groom and his bride on the right and the grooms- 
men and bridesmaids on each side down the line. 
He asked the divine blessing, or said the grace, 
for both tables. There were several tables full 
of the guests, but, as the food supply was ample, 
all had enough. The whole scene was a pic- 
turesque one, and it was made more so by the 



02 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

glare of the big bonfire that was kept burning in 
the yard. 

After supper the fiddle struck up, with the 
nimble fingers of Jerry Goodman on the bow, 
and the dancing began and continued until a 
very late hour of the night. Early in the next 
week Sam, the groom, settled the marriage fee 
by giving the preacher. Uncle John Woods, a 
peck of clean-beat rice. Thus ended the wedding 
festivities on the old plantation. 



63 



CHAPTER VI. 

Chritsmas on the Old Plantation. 

Not many of the slaves knew the historical 
significance of Christmas. They could not read 
nor write, hence their knowledge of the import- 
ant events of history, even those of sacred his- 
tory, was exceedingly limited. Most they knew 
about Christmas was that it meant a good time 
for everybody. It was the custom on the planta- 
tions in that region of the country to kill the 
fattening hogs just before Christmas so that all, 
white folks and slaves, might have plenty of fresh 
meat to eat during this joyous season. This gave 
rise to the expression, which originated among 
the slaves, "a hog-killing time.'' Backbones, 
spare-ribs and rice were a favorite dish about 
Christmas time. 

There is another thing to be considered about 
the way and manner in which Christmas was 
observed on the old plantation in ante-bellum 
days, and that is this : Three days were usually 
given to the slaves for Christmas. The day 
before, generally called "Christmas Eve," and 
the day after; hence the slaves thought all three 
days were Christmas. They frequently referred 
to Christmas Eve as "the first day of Christmas," 

64 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

to Christmas itself as "the second day of Christ- 
mas," and the day after as ''the third or last day 
of Christmas." And this thouglit and this man- 
ner of expression have been brouj;ht over into 
freedom. Among the country colored people we 
frequently hear similar expressions used even at 
this day and time in speaking of Christmas. 

On some plantations it was the custom to have 
all the slaves repair in a body to the white folks' 
house on Christmas morning and receive a dram 
as "a Christmas present." Old and young, male 
and female, came forward for the "Christmas 
dram." It was certainly a lively time with the 
slaves on the old plantation. Those who came 
early to the yard would have to wait until all 
came. And while they waited they w^ould whis- 
tle, jig or dance, or 

"They sat and sung 
Their slender ditties when the trees were bare." 

But this was not the case-on Mr. Frierson's 
plantation. He was a Christian man, and, there- 
fore, believed in and practiced the principles of 
temperance. He, nor a single member of his 
family, were ever known to indulge in strong 
drink. Such a thing as whiskey was unknown on 
that plantation. But it was freely used on some 
of the adjoining plantations. On some of these 

65 
5 — O. P. 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

there were drunkards to be found both among 
the white folks and among the slaves. But not 
so on Mr. Frierson's place. It was a plantation 
where sobriety was strictly taught and practiced 
by the white folks, and, consequently, the slaves 
were greatly benefited. 

But Christmas was observed on Mr. Frierson's 
place in a way that was highly enjoyable to all. 
It was the custom on all the plantations around 
to give at the beginning of the winter each male 
among the slaves a new outfit, consisting of 
shoes, pants, coat and a cap. The women and 
girls got shoes and dresses. Mr. Frierson made 
it a point to give out these on Christmas morn- 
ing. 

On or about a month before Christmas the 
right foot of each slave, male and female, was 
measured and Mr. Frierson would get in his 
buggy and drive to Sumter, the County seat, and 
Sam would bring the two-horse wagon. The 
purpose was to buy shoes for the slaves. The 
town was only about twenty miles away, and by 
starting before day they could, and did, make 
the trip in a day, and do all their trading, too. 
The topic of conservation during that day among 
the slaves while they worked was the trip of the 
old boss and Sam to Sumter. As the sun went 
down and the time drew near for them to return 
the slaves would listen for the rumbling of the 

66 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

wagon wheels and the sound of horses' hoofs. 
That night their slumbers were filled with 
dreams and visions of new suits, new shoes, new 
caps and new dresses. But these things were not 
given out until Christmas morning. And while 
this glad day was perhaps only a month off, yet 
the month seemed longer, the days seemed longer 
and the nights seemed longer than at any other 
season of the year. This was naturally and liter- 
ally true of the niglits, but it was not true of the 
days nor the month, but so it seemed to the 
slaves. The anxiety, the longing and the solici- 
tude for the dawn of Christmas morning is inde- 
scribable. The thought of old Santa Clans 
among enlightened people never could produce 
such a feeling as that wliich animated the breasts 
of these poor, ignorant slaves. 

But Christmas came. The sun arose without 
a cloud to obscure his brightness. Breakfast is 
over and all hands repair to the "house." Pres- 
ently the yard is full of darkies with smiling 
faces and joyous hearts. And there are as many 
piles on that long front jjiazza of the white folks' 
house as there are hands on that place. In each 
pile there are shoes, a suit, or dress, and a cap. 
On each pile there is a tag with the name of the 
person written on it for whom it is designed. 
Now, imagine, if you can, the exquisite joy that 
thrilled each heart as his or her name was called. 

67 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

And as each person filed out of that gate on their 
return to the negro quarters they seemed to be 
as happy as angels. And it is needless to say 
that the white folks enjoyed the distribution of 
the winter's outfit on Christmas morning as 
much as the slaves, for such undoubtedly was 
the case. Everybody felt that this was a better 
way than having a dram on Christmas morning. 
Such was Christmas on the old plantation in 
ante-bellum days. 



C8 



CHAPTER VII. 

Sunday on the Old Plantation. 

Sunday was always a welcome day on the old 
plantation, not only by the slaves, but also by 
the white folks. It came in all right to break 
the monotony of plantation life. The older and 
more serious ones w^ent to "meetin' '' or visited 
the sick, or made social calls, while the young- 
sters met other youngsters from the adjoining 
plantations and spent the day in wrestling, 
jumping, boxing, running foot races and some- 
times fighting. In the summer season they 
would sometimes roam through the fields 
from plantation to plantation in search of water- 
melons and fruits. They would plunge into the 
dark and dense swamp in search of wild musca- 
dine grapes or through the fields for blackberries, 
or the pine woods for huckleberries. 

On some of the nearby plantations the younger 
slaves were made to do light work on Sunday, 
such as minding the birds and crows from the 
corn, rice and potatoes. When these plants were 
coming up the crows and rice birds were very 
destructive. They would pull them up, and often 
the whole crop would have to be carefully 
replanted. But Mr. Frierson, who planted the 

69 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

same kinds of stuff as was planted on the otlier 
plantations, did not put any of his slaves on 
guard in the fields on Sunday, and yet he always 
made good crops and had an abundance. He >Yas 
a God-fearing man, and held that the Sabbath 
was a day of rest for man and beast. He kept 
the day as sacred and required all his slaves, as 
nearly as possible, to do the same. 

The Shiloh Methodist Church, to which Mr. 
Frierson and his family belonged, formed a part 
of the circuit known as the "Lynchburg Circuit." 
The parsonage was located at Lynchburg, a little 
cross-roads village about eight miles away. The 
minister was accustomed to preach in the Metho- 
dist Church at Lynchburg Sunday morning at 11 
o'clock and at Shiloh in the afternoon at 3 :30 
o'clock the same day. His appointment at the 
Shiloh Church was once a month, but to keep the 
slaves — and especially the younger ones — out of 
mischief, Mr. Frierson had preaching in his yard 
under the stately old water oaks on the regular 
preaching day at Shiloh. This service was con- 
ducted by some one of the old ante-bellum negro 
preachers. There was also a Sunday school con- 
ducted at the Shiloh Church in tlie afternoon 
just before preaching. All tliis was done for the 
spiritual and moral uplift of the slaves as well 
as to keep them out of devilment, and from dese- 
crating God's holy day. 

70 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

But the service conducted in Mr. Frierson's 
yard at 11 o'clock on the preaching day at 
Shiloh was the centre of attraction in all that 
region of country. The more pious from tlie 
adjacent plantations, both white and colored, 
came in large numbers. The services invariably 
were conducted by ante-bellum negro preachers. 
These preachers were: Uncle John Woods, 
Uncle Daniel Gass, Uncle Daniel Hand, and 
Uncle Joseph White. Some of these lived jast 
a few miles away, others again lived a con- 
siderable distance. One, Uncle Daniel Hand, 
lived across the Lynches River, over in Darling- 
ton, the adjoining county. They all had their 
day, and they seldom failed to meet it. Of 
course, they had to get the consent of their mas- 
ters to come, and they invariably brought a 
ticket from their masters for their protection. 
If they lived far away their masters would let 
them have a mule to ride; or if it happened to 
be in the work season and the mules were busy, 
the master's saddle horse or buggy horse was 
given instead. But Uncle John Woods lived the 
nearest, and, therefore, was oftenest there. 

Mr. Frierson's front yard was a large one, and, 
as has been stated heretofore several times, it 
was well shaded with large and beautiful water 
oaks. Under these oaks Mr. Frierson had very 
comfortable seats placed. There was a seating 

71 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

capacity for possibly 250 or 300 people. They 
were arranged so that the audience would face 
the east and present a side view to the white 
folks, who sat in the long front piazza. At the 
east end of these seats, fronting the audience, 
stood a small table with a clean white cloth 
thrown over it. On this table was placed a 
pitcher of fresh water and a tumbler, a Bible and 
a hymn book, and behind it a chair. All this for 
the use and convenience of the speaker, who was 
always a colored man. No white preacher was 
ever known to stand behind that table, though 
some of them very much desired to do so. That 
long piazza was usually filled with devout wiiite 
worshippers, and the seats below with zealous 
and enthusiastic colored Christians. 

The scene presented a very unique appearance. 
Those who had religion in that day and time had 
what is now called ^'tlie old time religion." Some- 
times when the old preacher would warm up to 
his subject and grow loud, if not eloquent, the 
audience would break forth in shouts of joy and 
praise. While some colored sister would be 
jumping out in the audience, some of the white 
ladies were known to act in a similar manner In 
the piazza. In those days both the white folks 
and the colored folks had good religion. Tlie 
singing by the colored folks on such occasions 
was an important feature of the worship. It 

72 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

was not done by notes nor always by words, but 
it was from the heart, and the melody seldom 
failed to stir the soul. Rev. Dinkins, the negro 
poet quoted previously, describes it thus : 

"Give me the farm when Sunday comes, 
When all the girls and all the chums 

Meet at the spring, 
When long-eared mules, ox-carts in droves, 
Come sailing through the woods and groves, 
Oh, how we sing ! 

"The preacher reads the hymn divine, 
And we remember not a line. 

But sing right on ; 
When with the text we start to shout. 
Forgetting shame, or pride, or doubt. 

To heaven most gone." 

Uncle John Woods was a good preacher, con- 
sidering his chances, and had an excellent com- 
mand of good English. He was a man of deep 
piety, and had the love and respect of both white 
and colored. The author herewith reproduces, 
from memory, one of his sermons preached in 
Mr. Frierson's yard. 



A Sermon on the Old Plantation. 

By Uncle John Woods. 

Text — "The men of Nineveh shall rise in judg- 
ment with this generation and shall condemn it 

73 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; 
and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here." — 
Matt, xii :41. 

Brothers and Sisters: These words, which I 
have taken for a text, were spoken by our Lord, 
Jesus Christ. He spoke them to the people of 
His day and time, but He commanded His ser- 
vant, St. Matthew, to write them down in a book 
so that all the people in all the ages might have 
them and take warning. So I bring them to you 
today, and you will do well to listen and to take 
heed. 

St. Matthew was a servant, brothers and sis- 
ters, and he was a good servant and obeyed 
Christ, his Master. Christ called him and he 
came and followed Christ. Christ commanded 
him to Avrite the gospel and he wrote it. So 
Christ wants you and me to obey Him in all 
things. He says, "Repent, for the kingdom of 
heaven is at hand." Christ wants us to hear His 
voice and obey His words. And if we don't obey 
Him he will punish us, for He says in another 
place: "He that knows his Master's will and 
does it not shall be beaten with many stripes." 
Many of us know, in a two-fold sense, what this 
means. But all who are not Christians will learn 
to their sorrow one of these days what it means 
in a spiritual sense. Christ is our Master, we 
are His servants, and if we don't obey Him and 

74 



*LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

repent, He will certainly apply the lash, and 
apply it severely, too. 

But let us consider Jonah. He is the man 
referred to in the text. Let me read it again; 
perhaps you have forgotten it: "The men of 
Ninevah shall rise in judgment with this gen- 
eration and shall condemn it, because they 
repented at the preaching of Jonah ; and, behold, 
a greater than Jonah is here." 

Jonah was called just like Matthew. Matthew 
was called to be an apostle and to write a book, 
and he obeyed. Jonah was called to be a 
prophet. He was sent to preach repentance to 
the people of Ninevah, but Jie refused to go. It 
is hard to tell, brothers and sisters, what were 
his reasons for not obeying God and going to 
preach to these people. But I remember that 
Jonah was a Jew, and, according to his raising 
and training, he did not want to have anything 
to do with the people of another nation. He did 
not wish to associate with them, he did not wish 
to eat with them, nor sleep in their houses, nor 
to preach the word of God to them. I can't say 
Jonah was a wicked man, neither can I say he 
was a bad man, for I don't believe that God 
would call a wicked or a bad man to preach His 
word to the people, no, not even to the heathen. 

Now, what did Jonah do? Let us see. He 
ran away, or, at least, he tried to run away from 

75 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

God. He tliouglit be would go down to Joppa, 
buy a ticket for Tarsliisli and take sliipping for 
that place, as though there was no God in Joppa, 
Tarshish or on the sea. My friends, I fear we 
sometimes make the same mistake. We do 
wrong and then try to run away from God. We 
try to hide from His presence. Adam and Eve, 
in the Garden of Eden, tried the same trick, but 
it would not work. They sinned against God. 
They disobeyed Him and ate the forbidden fruit, 
and when they found that God was displeased 
and angry with them, they hid themselves among 
the bushes of the garden. But God came down 
and sought them and found them. Right there 
in the garden the judgment was set; the guilty 
pair was convicted and the awful sentence was 
pronounced. In great shame and disgrace they 
were driven from that holy place out into a world 
of sin, sorrow and misery. If a man breaks God's 
holy law and sin against Him, though he may 
run away and hide, God will find him and pun- 
ish him. The Bible says, '^Be sure your sins will 
find you out." 

But Jonah came to Joppa, and, after paying 
his fare, he went aboard tliat ship. He did not 
feel good. He did not feel like a man taking a 
pleasure trip, nor like a man going off on busi- 
ness. He did not sit down on deck and converse 
with the other passengers. No, under the burden 

76 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

of his terrible guilt he went down into the hold 
of the ship among the freiglit and went fast to 
sleep. He went to sleep ! Sleep is all rigiit wlien 
it is taken in the right place, at tlie right time 
and under the right circumstances. Otherwise 
it is wrong, it is out of place. Hence you see, 
brothers and sisters, it is possible for a man to 
sleep with a great burden of guilt upon him, and 
when he is in great and fearful danger. Jonah 
was asleep, but God was wide awake with His 
eyes on him. Jonah thought he was hiding, but 
God saw him. 

By and by I hear loud thunders begin to roll. 
I see dark clouds coming up. The lightnings 
flash and play upon the bosom of these black 
clouds. The sea roars and the waves rise like 
mountains. The ship pitches and rocks and the 
shipmaster and his crew become afraid. They 
threw some of the freight overboard and every 
man prayed to his god, and yet the storm was not 
abated. It still raged. Then they thought that 
they would cast lots to see on whose account this 
terrible storm had come upon them. They felt 
that somebody was guilty and they desired to 
find the guilty man. And when the lot was cast 
it fell upon Jonah. He was the guilty man. Tlien 
the shipmaster went down in the hold and found 
Jonah fast asleep. How that man could sleep in 
the midst of such a storm is a mystery to me ! I 

77 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

cannot understand it. But every sinner is doing 
the same thing. He is dead asleep in his sins 
while the storm of God's wrath is raging all 
around him. 

The shipmaster said to Jonah : "What meanest 
thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God, if so be 
that God will think upon us, that we perish not.'' 
When Jonah was awakened, the shipmaster, 
his crew and the passengers all gathered around 
him and asked him what was his occupation, 
what was his country and what was his nation. 
And Jonah answered and said : "I am a Hebrew 
and I fear Jehovah, the God of heaven, who hath 
made the sea and the dry land." He then con- 
fessed his guilt. He told them that he was try- 
ing to run away from God, and begged them to 
throw him into the sea. They did so. But God 
had sent a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And 
Jonah was three days and nights in the belly of 
the fish. Then God told the fish to cast Jonah 
out on land, and the fish did so. And when 
Jonah got free from the fish he went to Nineveh 
and preached repentance to the people, and the 
whole city was converted and spared. Now, 
Jesus says in my text: "The men of Nineveh 
shall rise in judgment with this generation and 
Shall condemn it, because they repented at the 
preaching of Jonah ; and, behold, a greater than 
Jonah is here." 

78 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

Christ declares here in this text that He is 
greater than Jonah. And so He is. This does 
not need any argument to prove it. You all 
believe that. Christ is greater than Jonah. 
Jonah was a man, Christ was God. Jonah was 
guilty of the sins of disobedience and anger, 
Christ yielded perfect obedience to God and was 
without sin. Therefore He is greater than 
Jonah. But the people of Ninevah repented at 
the preaching of Jonah, while Christ, who is 
greater than Jonah, came from lieaven to earth 
to preach to sinners, and they will not hear nor 
repent. Therefore the people of Nineveh shall 
rise up in the judgment and condemn them. 

My friends, there is going to be a judgment. 
God has appointed a day when He is going to 
judge the world. All the good angels will be 
there. All the devils in hell and out of hell will 
be there. All the good people saved in heaven 
will be there, and all the bad people lost in hell 
will be there. And you, my friends, all will be 
there, and I will be there. And if you don't 
repent the men of Nineveh will come forth as 
witnesses against you. They shall condemn you, 
because they repented at the preaching of 
Jonah, and behold a greater than Jonah is here, 
and that greater one is Christ. 



79 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

May the Lord help you all to get ready for 
that awful day, for it will surely come! 



This sermon, of which the above sketch is a 
mere outline, was delivered with great energy 
and power, and it produced a deep impression 
upon the entire audience. 



80 



CHAPTER VIII. 
A Funeral on the Old Plantation. 

It may appear strange to the reader, but it is 
true, nevertheless, that in some way or other the 
slaves very often connected sickness and death 
with voodooism or conjuration. This belief and 
practice of voodooism and conjuration origi- 
nated in Africa, and was brought over to 
America when the native African was brought 
here and made a slave. The idea is deeply rooted 
in the negro thought and life. Its history runs 
back, perhaps, four thousand years among the 
native tribes of that Dark Continent. 

I quote from the University Encyclopedia: 
^'Voodoo, a name given by the negroes of the 
West Indies and the United States to supersti- 
tious rites and beliefs brought with them from 
Africa, and to the sorcerer who practiced these 
rites. 

"In the Southern States of the Union there was 
at one time a widespread and deep-rooted belief 
in the power of these sorcerers. As the negroes 
advance in education the belief is dying away. 
At one time, however, despite all efforts of relig- 
ious teachers to banish the mastery of this belief 
from the minds of the slaves, the voodoo "doctor' 

81 

6 — o. p. 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

was an almost omnipotent individual in the esti- 
mation of his fellows. No slave could, under any 
pretext, be persuaded to expose himself to the 
vengeance or wrath of one of these conjurers. 
In some cases there was a reasonable foundation 
for these fears, for in not a few instances has it 
been proven that some of the voodoos were skill- 
ful poisoners, and while the great mass of their 
professed art was a rank imposture, still they 
possessed enough of devilish skill to render them 
objects of wholesome dread. 

"Their methods were as varied and variable as 
the winds. Anything that was mysterious or 
likely to impress the ignorant mind with a feel- 
ing of terror was eagerly seized on and improved 
by them to their own advantage. Their services 
were more often invoked in destructive than in 
curative offices. If a negro desired to destroy an 
enemy he sought the aid of tlie voodoo, who, in 
many cases, would undertake to remove the 
obnoxious one, and the removal was generally 
accomplished through the medium of poison. No 
doubt exists that in many cases the victim of a 
voodoo died from sheer fright, for whenever a 
negro had reason to think that he was possessed 
by the spell of the voodoo, he at once gave up all 
hope, thus hastening the accomplishment of the 
end toward which the energies of the sorcerer 
were directed. Their incantations and spell- 

82 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

workings were always conducted with the great- 
est secrecy, no one being allowed to witness the 
more occult and potent portion of their ritual. 
They were frequently employed by dusky swains 
to gain for them the affections of their hard- 
hearted inamoratas, and love powders and other 
accessories for ^tricking' constituted their stock 
in trade, and in some instances yielded them no 
insignificant revenue. The field in which voo- 
dooism flourished best was the far South, among 
the rice, cotton and sugar plantations, where the 
negroes were not brought into contact so closely 
with their masters as they were further North." 

The above quotation is a correct presentation 
of the conditions as they existed on the Frierson 
plantation, as well as on every plantation in the 
Southern States. What was true of one as 
regards voodooism and conjuration, was true of 
all of them. 

Well, there was a girl on the Frierson planta- 
tion by the name of Mary. She w^as a black girl 
of medium size, but rather good looking. She 
was quite a favorite among the young men of the 
place and neighborhood. Several, so to speak, 
were cutting after her. Mary was a daughter of 
Aunt Peggie and Uncle Sam. But it came to 
pass that she took sick, and, after a lingering 
illness of possibly four or six months' duration, 
she died, leaving behind her a little infant. Bur- 
sa 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

ing the entire period of her sickness it was whis- 
pered around on the plantation, also on the 
adjoining plantations, tliat Mary had been con- 
jured. Of course, this meant that she had been 
poisoned. There was a woman who lived on a 
plantation not far away, whose name was Epsey. 
This woman was said to have been Mary's rival 
in a love scrape, and, therefore, was accused of 
being the one who administered the dose. Some 
conjurer of the neighborhood prepared the dose 
for her, so it was said. This thing — Mary's sick- 
ness and death, and the talk of her being con- 
jured — stirred the negroes on all the plantations 
for miles around. 

But the white folks took no stock in all these 
rumors and gossip. They knew that Mary was 
sick, therefore they sent for Dr. Adolphus Hig- 
gins Frierson. He was a brother of the proprie- 
tor of the old plantation, and was a graduate 
of a medical college in Philadelphia, Pa. He 
was a learned man and a very competent physi- 
cian. He was the family physician for the white 
folks, and also attended the slaves. 

Dr. Frierson treated Mary, but the slaves did 
not think that he understood the case. There- 
fore they employed a voodoo doctor. This voo- 
doo doctor said he understood the case perfectly 
well. He said Mary had been "hurt" or "con- 
jured," and that he alone could cure her. So he 

84 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

treated her secretly at the same time that Dr. 
Frierson was treating her. But it came to pass 
that Mary died and her funeral was the largest 
ever held in all that region of the country. 

Death always made a very profound impres- 
sion upon the slaves. They could not under- 
stand it. Their dead was invariably buried at 
night or on the Sabbath, at which time the slaves 
from the adjoining plantations attended in large 
numbers. Mary's funeral took place at night. 

The coffin^ a rough home-made affair, was 
placed upon a cart, which was drawn by old 
Grav, and the multitude formed in a line in the 
rear, marching two deep. The jjrocession was 
something like a quarter of a mile long. Perhaps 
every fifteenth person down the line carried an 
uplifted torch. As the procession moved slowly 
toward "the lonesome graveyard'' down by the 
side of the swamp, they sung the well-known 
hymn of Dr. Isaac Watts : 

"When I can read my title clear 
To mansions in the skies, 
I bid farewell to every fear 
And wipe my weeping eyes." 

Mary's baby was taken to the graveyard by its 
grandmother, and before the corpse was depos- 
ited in the earth, the baby was passed from one 

85 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

person to another across the coffin. The slaves 
believed that if this was not done it would be 
impossible to raise the infant. The mother's 
spirit would come back for her baby and take it 
to herself. This belief is held by many of the 
descendants of these slaves, who practice the 
same thing at the present day. 

After this performance the corpse was lowered 
into the grave and covered, each person throwing 
a handful of dirt into the grave as a last and 
farewell act of kindness to the dead, and while 
this was being done the leader announced that 
other hymn of Dr. Watts : 

"Hark ! from the tombs a doleful sound 

My ears, attend the cry; 
Ye living men, come view the ground 
Where you must shortly lie.'' 

These hymns were sung with a spirit and 
pathos which were sufficient to move the heart 
of a savage. A prayer was offered, the doxology 
sung and the benediction was pronounced. This 
concluded the services at the grave. No burial 
or committal service was read, for it was only 
now and then that one could be found among 
the slaves who could read well enough to do it. 
At a subsequent time, when all the relatives and 
friends could be brought together, a big funeral 

86 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

sermon was preached by some one of the ante- 
bellum negro preachers. And this practice has 
been brought over into the land of freedom, and 
is still observed in some places and by some col- 
ored people at the present day. 



87 



CHAPTER IX. 

A LOG-ROLLING ON THE OlD PLANTATION. 

The slaveholders of ante-bellum days had some 
customs that were very convenient, and, at the 
same time, very helpful to each other. There 
were no markets and butchers in the country, 
where they could get fresh meats: hence they 
formed a market among themselves, and each 
man was his own butcher. That is, a number of 
them formed themselves into a club, one of which 
killed a fat young beef every Saturday, and a 
clioice piece was taken to each member of the 
club. Thus they were supplied with nice fresh 
beef every week. This beef was not sold, but was 
distributed around among the members of the 
club as a sort of an exchange arrangement. When 
a member of the club killed, he put the whole 
beef into the wagon (except his own choice or 
piece) and sent it round to each member of the 
club, and they made their own selection. When 
tlie club was formed, each member subscribed to, 
or promised to take so many pounds each week, 
and it was done. This arrangement obtained all 
tlirough tlie country, and it worked very nicely. 

Tliere was anotlier arrangement, wliich was 
formed by the planters for mutual helpfulness: 

88 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

namely, the log-rolling. A day was set on which 
the log-rolling was to take place, and then invita- 
tions were sent out to the neighboring planters, 
and each sent a hand. This work was returned 
when the others had their log-rolling. A log-roll- 
ing always meant a good dinner of the best, and 
lots of fun, as well as a testing of inanhood. This 
testing of manhood was something tliat every- 
body was interested in. The masters were con- 
cerned, and consequently they selected and sent 
to the log-rolling their ablest-bodied men; the 
slave women were concerned : for tliey wanted 
their husbands and sweethearts to be considered 
the best men of the community. Then, too, the 
men took great pride in the development of their 
muscles. They took delight in rolling up their 
shirt sleeves, and displaying the largeness of 
their arms. In some cases, their muscles pre- 
sented the appearance of John L. Sullivan — the 
American pugilist. 

The woodlands of the South were covered with 
a variety of trees and undergrowth. Among the 
trees, were to be found the majestic pine, the 
sturdy oak, the sweet maple, the lovely dogwood, 
and the fruitful and useful hickory. When a 
piece of woodland was cleared up, and made 
ready for planting, it was called ''new ground." 
In clearing up new ground, the undergrowth was 

89 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION * 

grubbed up and burned; the oaks, maples, dog- 
wood, and hickories were cut down, split up, and 
hauled to the house for firewood; and the pines 
were belted or cut round, and left to die. After 
these pines had died and partially decayed, the 
winter's storms, from year to year, would blow 
them down ; hence the necessity for the annual 
log-rolling. These log-rollings usually took place 
in the spring of the year. They formed an 
important part of the preparations for the new 
crop. 

On the appointed day, the hands came together 
at the yard, and all necessary arrangements were 
made, the most important of which was the pair- 
ing or matching of the men for the day's work. 
In doing this, regard was had to the height and 
weight of the men. They were to lift in pairs, 
therefore, it was necessary that they should be as 
nearly the same height and weight as possible. 
The logs have all been cut about twenty feet in 
length, and several good, strong hand sticks have 
been made. Now, everything is ready, and away 
to the fields they go. See them as they put six 
hand-sticks under a great big log. This means 
twelve men — one at each end of the hand-stick. 
It is going to be a mighty testing of manhood. 
Every man is ordered to his place. The captain 
gives tlie order, "Ready," and every man bows to 

90 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

his burden, with one hand on the end of the liand- 
stick, and the other on the log to keep it from 
rolling. The next command given by the captain 
is, "Altogether!" and up comes the big log. As 
they walk and stagger toward the heap, they 
utter a whoop like what is known as the "Rebel 
yell.'' If one fails to lift his part, he is said to 
have been "pulled down," and therefore becomes 
the butt of ridicule for the balance of the day. 
When the women folks learn of his misfortune, 
they forever scorn him as a weakling. 

At 12 o'clock the horn blows for dinner, and 
they all knock off, and go, and enjoy a good din- 
ner. After a rest, for possibly two hours, they 
go to the field again, and finish up the work for 
the day. Such was the log-rolling in the "days 
before the war." 

At a subsequent day the women and children 
gather up the bark and limbs of these fallen trees 
and throw or pile them on these log heaps and 
burn them. When fifty or seventy-five log heaps 
would be fully ablaze in the deepening of the 
evening twilight, the glare reflected from the 
heavens made it appear that the world was on 
fire. To even the benighted and uneducated 
slave, the sight was magnificent, and one of awe- 
inspiring beauty. 



91 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

The custom of log-rolling, under the changed 
condition of things, may be done away with, but 
its name still lingers in the thouglit and language 
of modern times. It is often heard in gatherings, 
both religious and political, where everything 
goes, or is 77iade to go 07ie way. Such they say is 
"log-rolling." The idea comes from the fact that 
in a log-rolling, every man does his part, and 
every man goes the same way. There is unity of 
purpose, and concert of action. This is "log- 
rolling'^ in modern times. 



92 



CHAPTER X. 
A Corn-Shucking on the Old Plantation. 

All who have the good fortune to liave been 
born and reared in the country, can recall with 
pleasing recollections the joy that welled up in 
all hearts during the harvest. Rev. Dr. Henry 
Duncan, an English writer of singular ability, 
says: "The heart thus opened, is prepared for 
that social enjoyment which we observe so 
remarkably diffused over whole bands of reapers 
engaged in the same toilsome but healthful 
employment. The emotion spreads from heart to 
heart, and the animation which prevails while 
the work proceeds, is not less an indication of 
gladness than the joke and song with which the 
welkin resounds during the intervals of rest. 
Who can view the joy which sparkles in the eye, 
and bursts from the lips of the reaper while he 
plies his daily tasks and not acknowledge a 
beneficent Creator?'' 

In the Book of Ruth we have a vivid and beau- 
tiful picture given us of an oriental harvest. The 
fields of Boaz teem with plenty. The golden crop 
yields its stores to replenish his granaries. The 
voice of the season calls for the reapers. They 
take down their sickles and whet them until they 

93 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

are keen and bright. Then away to the harvest- 
field they go, followed by the binders and 
gleaners; among the latter is the lovely Ruth. 
With patient industry they ply the sickle from 
morn till noon, at which time they gather, mas- 
ter, reapers, binders and gleaners, to partake of 
their bountiful meal. This they do with a beau- 
tiful simplicity and with great joy and gladness. 
And this joy and gladness is not the result of 
having a plenty to eat and drink, but the respon- 
sive gratitude of the finer qualities of the heart 
for the gracious and lavish gifts of a Divine 
Providence. This sentiment — ^joy at the return 
of the harvest — is characteristic of human 
nature. This is the testimony of all ages the 
world over. So it was with the ancient Egypt- 
ians, Greeks, and Romans. And so it is with us 
at the present day. The writer of these pages 
can remember the time when, even in America, 
the grain harvest was a time of great rejoicing. 
Of course this was before reapers or harvesters 
became so common. The neighbors for miles 
around used to send each a hand, with the old- 
fashioned "cradle,^' to our house, to assist in 
reaping down the harvest. And when ours was 
all done, we sent to help each of them. This was 
the custom in those days. With twenty hands 
we could reap down nearly a hundred acres in a 



94 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

day. Each reaper had a binder to follow him, 
and each binder had a little boy to gather up the 
handfuls as fast as the reaper would let tliem 
fall, and hand them to him or her. The writer 
was one of those little boys. It was fun for us. 
We always had a plenty to eat and drink of the 
best the farm afforded. The fun, the sport, and 
the joy we all had cannot be described. Only 
those who have had some acquaintance with farm 
life can imagine how we enjoyed it. What we ate 
and drank, and the joy the harvest afforded, con- 
stituted a considerable portion of our reward for 
bearing the burden and the heat of the day in the 
harvest field. This was wheat harvest, which 
usually occurred in June. 

But the corn harvest came in the fall, and the 
corn-shucking always took place at that season. 
The fodder was generally pulled or stripped in 
August and September, and the ears of corn were 
left on the stock to dry until about the first of 
November. But now the day has come, and the 
corn breaking has begun. The hands all go to 
the field, and they break off the ears and throw 
them into piles. These piles are made in the 
middle of the same row about twenty feet apart, 
and contain the corn of some twelve rows. Two 
wagons, each drawn by a pair of mules or horses, 
with bodies the same size, are loaded level full of 



95 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

corn. At the barn yard it is thrown into two 
piles preparatory to the corn-shucking. One 
load is put on this pile, and the other on that, 
and so on, until the entire crop is hauled in. 

Then the night is set for the corn-shucking : for 
it was usually had at niglit, so that the slaves 
from the adjacent plantations could come and 
enjoy tlie sport. Invitations were sent far and 
near, and they were readily accepted. Great pre- 
parations were made in food and drink. The only 
drink allowed at the corn-shucking was coffee, 
but it was customary on some of the plantations 
to have whiskey at corn-shuckings, but Mr. Frier- 
son never allowed it. 

It was often the case that from fifty to seventy- 
five men, beside the women, came to the corn- 
shucking. All these had to be fed. Great pots of 
rice, meat, bread and coffee were prepared. It 
was enough for all who came and took part in 
the corn-shucking. 

Wlien all the invited hands had arrived, the 
first thing in order was the election of two men 
to be captains, and these captains selected their 
companies from the crowd present. It was done 
alternately, something after the manner of school 
boys when they make up their sides to play a 
game of baseball. Captain Number One had the 
first choice, and then his opponent, and so on. 



96 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

until the two companies were made up. These 
preliminary matters having been arranged, tliey 
then set in to shucking corn. 

The reader will remember that there are two 
piles of corn of equal size, and now tliere are two 
companies of shuckers of equal numbers, each 
company having a captain. It was considered no 
little honor to be elected captain of a corn-shuck- 
ing company. His hat or cap was invariably 
decorated with the inside shucks of a large ear of 
corn. He was delighted with the office, and 
everybody — white and colored — did him honor. 
In the election of these captains, regard was had 
to their ability to sing: for the captains usually 
led their company in singing while shucking 
corn. At a given signal, each captain took his 
seat on the top of his pile of corn, and his 
shuckers surrounded it. While they shucked 
corn, they engaged in singing corn-shucking 
songs. Much of the fun of the occasion depended 
upon which side should win. It was a race that 
grew more exciting as the piles of unshucked 
corn grew less. They shucked, they sang, and 
they shouted. Then they knew that a bountiful 
supper awaited them just as soon as the work 
was done. On they went — a jolly good set, sing- 
ing, joking and laughing. In the midst of it all, 
they could sniff the aroma of hot coffee, and the 

97 

7 — o. p. 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

delicious odor of roasted meats and other nice 
dishes. This, as well as the hope of victory, was 
quite an inspiration to the boys. Well, the work 
is done. The last ear of corn has been shucked, 
and captain number one, with his company, has 
won. See the boys, as they toss their hats into 
the air ! Hear them shout ! The victory is theirs. 
They are a happy set. 

Supper is now ready. Long tables — well laden 
with good things — have been prepared. Fully 
two score colored women are there to wait on 
the table. And they eat, and eat, and drink, to 
their satisfaction. The supper being over, with 
the moon shining brightly (moon-light nights 
were invariably selected for corn-shuckings) the 
boys spend some time in wrestling, foot racing 
and jumping before going home. And in all 
these games they matched one's agility, strength, 
and manhood against that of his fellow. This is 
kept up until a late hour of the night, and then 
they retire to the various plantations whither 
they belong. 

Such was the corn-shucking on the old planta- 
tion in ante-bellum days. It was very much 
enjoyed by both the white folks and the slaves. 
The incidents and the happenings of a corn- 
shucking were long talked of on all the planta- 
tions represented. Nearly all the plantations 
had their corn-shuckings, and they certainly kept 
things lively during this season of the year in 
those days. 

98 



CHAPTER XI. 

Little Jimmie^ the Mail Boy^ on the Old 
Plantation. 

Little Jimmie was, perhaps, the most interest- 
ing character on Mr. Frierson's plantation. He 
was not a mulatto in the strict sense of tliat 
word. Webster, who is an authority on the 
meaning of words in the English language, says : 
"A mulatto is the offspring of a negress by a 
white man, or of a white woman by a negro.^' 
Jimmie was the son of Uncle Tom and Aunt 
Namie. Both of them were mulattoes. Both of 
their fathers were white and both of their 
mothers were black. 

Jimmie's father — Uncle Tom — was a free 
man. He was born a slave, but purchased him- 
self and his mother long before the first gun of 
the Civil War was fired. He was a man of indus- 
try, frugality, and wisdom. His wife — Aunt 
Namie — possessed the same qualities as her hus- 
band in an eminent degree, to all of which she 
added another very desirable quality, and that 
was a deep and sincere piety. Though a slave, 
she was one of Zion's noblest daughters. 

Jimmie was not like Isaac, a child of promise; 
nor like Moses, a goodly child; nor like Samuel, 

99 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

a child of desire and prayer; but like the 
unnamed offspring of David and Bathsheba, he 
was a child of affliction. According to the testi- 
mony of his mother, his father, and his grand- 
mother, he came into the world a sorely afflicted 
child. They never tliought that they would ever 
succeed in raising the little fellow. But they 
did all in their power for the child, backed by the 
efforts of the white folks; and God blessed the 
means used, and the child lived, and grew to be 
a bright and active little boy. 

Jimmie possessed a lively, sunshiny, and 
frank disposition, which never failed to win 
friends for him. Consequently, from his early 
childhood, he became a general favorite on the 
plantation among both the white folks and the 
slaves. Just as soon as he became old enough, 
his old master took him from his mother to be 
his waiting-boy. This necessitated his eating at 
the yard and sleeping in the white folks' house. 
Family prayers were invariably had, evening and 
morning, and Jimmie was always called in. The 
family sat in a semi-circle around the fireside, 
and Jimmie's little chair formed a part of that 
semi-circle. The Bible was read in a most 
impressive manner, and prayer was offered. The 
memory of those days has always been helpful 
and a source of inspiration to Jimmie. 



100 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

But Jimmie had many narrow escapes from 
death. In the big house, he slept on a pallet 
before the fire. One night, between midnight 
and day, his bed took fire. And, strange to say, 
it burned some considerable time before he real- 
ized what was the trouble. It is true, he felt the 
fire, but, in his sleep, he imagined himself being 
toasted by a big oak fire on a cold winter's night. 
However, he awoke, and to his utter astonish- 
ment, found his bed to be on fire. He aroused 
himself and tried to put the fire out, but failed. 
By this time the large room was filled with 
smoke, which became stifling. One of the young 
ladies — Miss Mary Ann — awoke, and asked if his 
bed was not on fire, and Jimmie told her, "Yes." 
She told him to take it out into the yard, which 
he did. He then applied water, and put it out. 
He sat up the balance of the night, but, like a 
shipwrecked seaman, he wished for the morning. 

When Jimmie was aboTit twelve years of age, 
he had a narrow escape from death by drowning. 
It was the custom among the slaves — both men 
and boys — to go in swimming after dinner. The 
place was a deep lake on the stream called Pud- 
den Swamp. Up to this time Jimmie had not 
learned how to swim. The edge of the lake was 
shallow, but as you advanced toward the centre, 
it became deeper and deeper until it reached 
perhaps some twelve or fifteen feet. The boys 

101 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

of Jimmie's age and size batlied near the banks, 
while the men, and those who could swim, 
plunged into the deep. Once Jimmie ventured 
too far out, and got into water where he could 
not touch bottom. Down he went: and when he 
arose, he screamed. This attracted the attention 
of all who were in bathing. He sank again, and 
when he came up tlie second time, his oldest 
brother Sam, who was an expert swimmer, 
caught him and saved him. Thus he was rescued, 
through the mercy of God, from a watery grave. 
Had this occurred on an occasion when these 
men were not present (for the boys often went 
in swimming without them) Jimmie would cer- 
tainly have been drowned. 

This boy was full of mischief, and reckless 
daring. He would venture to ride wild horses, 
unbroken mules, and even untamed steers. Once, 
while riding the little mule Jack, he was thrown 
with violence and tremendous force to the 
ground. It nearly killed him. After lying there 
awhile, he came to, and got up, but no traces of 
the little mule could be seen. In after years, 
Jimmie thought on these narrow escapes from 
death, and took comfort in the saying of an old 
writer : "Second causes do not work at pleasure. 
This is the bridle that God has upon tlie world." 
Lack of space prevents the writer from recording, 
in detail, all the miraculous deliverances from 

102 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

death, wliicli marked the life of this much favored 
youth. 

Jimmie was something of a privileged char- 
acter on Mr. Frierson's plantation. It is true, he 
had to work in the field along with tlie other 
hands. Sometimes he dropped corn and peas; 
sometimes he thinned corn and cotton ; and some- 
times he hoed or plowed. But when Mr. Frier- 
son would go off on business in his buggy, Jim- 
mie had to go along and drive him. When his 
daughters went to church, or to make social calls, 
he went to drive them, and to care for the horses. 
So Jimmie had the privilege of attending all the 
big meetings, the weddings, and the parties of the 
white folks. All this proved to be of considerable 
advantage to him in gaining knowledge and 
information. Frequently on his return from 
some of these trips, the slaves would gatlier 
around him — old and young — to hear him tell 
what he saw and heard. And for days these 
things would be discussed by the body of slaves. 
This helped also to break the monotony of plan- 
tation life. 

But as Jimmie grew up to young manhood, he 
became an expert horseman. There were none on 
the place, even among those older than he, wliite 
or colored, who could surpass him in this partic- 
ular. His old master — Mr. Frierson — was so 



103 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

well pleased with Jimmie's achievements along 
this line that he gave him a pony named Charlie. 
This horse was a chestnut sorrel, with a star in 
his forehead, and a double mane, or a mane tliat 
fell gracefully on both sides of his neck. He was 
built exactly like a race horse. His body was 
long and slim, and his legs long and slender. His 
tail was of medium length, and inclined to be 
bushy. Jimmie ran many a race with Charlie, 
and had him so thoroughly trained that no liorse 
or mule on that plantation, or on the adjoining 
plantations, could run with him. It was Jimmie's 
duty — in addition to the work he did on the 
farm — to go tAvice a week — Wednesdays and Sat- 
urdays — to Mr. Chris Player's, two miles away, 
for the mail, and to bring up the cows and slieep. 
Hence Jimmie never made a full hand on the 
farm, but worked when he was not needed for 
other duties. 

But there is another interesting incident in the 
life of this youth, which the autlior cannot fail 
to relate. It occurred wlien he was about fifteen 
years of age. In tlie spring of 1865 tlie War 
between the States ended. Tlie result was, all 
tlie slaves became free. A contract was signed 
by master and slaves to remain together the 
balance of that year and finish the crop. 



104 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

It was now in the fall of that year, and the 
crops were being gathered. The children and 
young folks were sent to the field to pick peas. 
Jimmie was one of the number. The field was in 
sight of the white folks' house. From this liouse 
the white folks had a splendid view of these 
youngsters. They worked tolerably well until 
toward sundown, when they became very playful 
and frolicsome. From the house, the white folks 
saw their pranks. But nothing was said, yet 
they noticed that young "Mas" Dolphus was 
coming toward them with his double-barrel shot- 
gun on his shoulder. They suspected nothing; 
but supposed that he was going on a squirrel 
hunt, as he was wont to do in tlie cool of the 
afternoons. As a matter of course, the youngsters 
all sobered down to work — seeing "Mas Dolphus" 
coming. And not a word was spoken, until he 
walked right up to Jimmie, and drew from under 
his coat a long whip, and began to lay it on him. 
The young master uttered these awful words as 
he continued to hit Jimmie : "Run if you dare, 
and I'll blow your brains out." Of course, the 
sight of the gun, and the threatening words of the 
young master had a decided effect in taming this 
young freedman. He stood and took it as good 
naturedly as he possibly could. And when he 
had gone the rounds (for he gave all a little) and 



105 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

left, Jimmie said : "I am not going to take this : 
for I am going straight to Sumter, and report 
this fellow to the Yankees/' Brave words these ! 
for a boy of fifteen, who was born and bred a 
slave, and taught nothing but to obey. He left 
the field immediately, jumped over into the 
swamp, went around the plantation, entered his 
mother's house, got his Sunday clothes, and 
struck out for Sumter, twenty-five miles away. 
He was followed by a boy called Henry, who was 
six months his junior, but was somewhat larger 
in stature. Henry had never been more than five 
miles from home in his life, and knew nothing 
but to work. Hence, it will be seen that Jimmie's 
traveling companion was not calculated to 
encourage him very much. 

From the white folks, Jimmie had learned that 
the slaves were all free, and tliat the countrv had 
been put under military government. From them 
he learned that there was a garrison of Union 
soldiers in the town of Sumter, and that there 
was a provost marshal there, who heard and 
settled difficulties between the freedmen and 
their former owners. It was a knowledge of 
these things that prompted him to do what 
he did. 

Jimmie and Henry left the old plantation just 
about dark. They told nobody of their departure, 



106 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

not even their mothers. How it must have pained 
them, when they discovered, at supper time, that 
these boys came up missing. Those were critical 
times. The war had just closed, but the country 
was still infested with lawless wanderers, wlio 
did not hesitate to commit crimes of all kinds. 
Robberies and murders were quite common. But 
in the face of all this, they plunged into a long, 
dark, and dense woods. Jimmie did not know 
the way to Sumter by the way of the State road, 
though he had traveled it several times with tlie 
white folks. But he knew that the railroad com- 
ing from Wilmington, N. C. — which ran witliin 
twelve or fifteen miles of Mr. Frierson's place — 
and going to Kingville, S. C, went by Sumter : 
for farmers from that section always crossed it 
near Sumter, going into tlie town. Now, Jim- 
mie's plan was, to get to the railroad, and then 
following the track in a westward direction, they 
would be sure to reach Sumter. And, after per- 
suing their journey through these fifteen miles 
of black forest, they struck the railroad about 11 
o'clock in the night. Jimmie at once suggested 
to Henry that tliey camp for the night. It was 
agreed to. So tliey crossed the railroad, and 
went about a hundred yards, raked up some pine 
straw and oak leaves, and lay down to sleep close 
by the side of each other. They slept as quietly 



107 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

and as sweetly as two little fawns. Sometime 
during the night, Jimmie was aroused by a pass- 
ing train. As he raised up, and saw its glaring 
headlight, and heard its thundering noise, which 
shook the earth beneath him, he was so terribly 
frightened until he could not call Henry. The 
next morning he asked Henry if he heard or saw 
the train in the night, and he said, "No." 

They arose betimes, and began their long 
journey for Sumter. They had no breakfast. In 
fact, they had had no supper the night before. 
Tliey left home so unceremoniously until they 
forgot to take provisions for the journey. It is 
needless to say that they left in great haste : for 
such was the case. They had no money, and 
knew nobody b}^ the way, and yet they did not 
steal. They readied Sumter, and found their 
way to tlie provost marshal's office before he 
came down. And, to their surprise, they met a 
crowd of other colored people tliere, who, like 
themselves, had had difficulties with their 
former owners, and came from all parts of 
the country, seeking redress. They were heard 
one at a time. And when these boys^ turn 
came, they entered tlie office as timidly as a hare. 
Tliis was tlieir first siglit of a Yankee soldier in 
uniform. There were two of them, but the boys 
could not remember their names. When Jimmie 



108 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

and Henry were asked in a most tender manner 
what they wanted, the former's heart was so 
touched, until he burst into a flood of tears. But 
when his tears were brushed away, Jimmie 
rehearsed the whole matter to them. This was 
his first public speech, and he never forgot it. 
The officers asked the boys if they had parents, 
and they told them, "Yes." But Jimmie told 
them that his father was a free man, and was 
living on a rented farm to himself. The provost 
marshal wrote him a note — telling liim that his 
son was now free, and that he must take care of 
him, and not allow him to return to the old plan- 
tation. This was done. Henry was given a letter 
to Mr. Frierson, which he took back to him, and 
was not molested. 



109 



CHAPTER XII. 

A Love Story on the Old Plantation. 

This love story is not a tale of fiction, nor is it 
one of romance, but it is a real story of love 
based on facts. It contains all the elements 
necessary to the making of a fascinating novel 
of two hundred or more printed pages. The char- 
acters were both slaves — having been born and 
reared in that condition. Nevertheless, they 
were not so lowly as to escape Cupid's notice. 
He aimed a dart at the heart of each of them, 
and in each case it struck and stuck fast. The 
flame tliat was kindled in these hearts by the son 
of Mars and Venus was as pure, and burned as 
fervently as in any human breast. 

Jimmie, the bright little mail boy, fell in love 
with Isabella. This young girl was a beautiful 
quadroon. She was inclined to be tall, and some- 
what slim, and possessed a lovely face. Her skin 
was fair, her eyes were dark, and her hair was 
black and fell in curls upon her shoulders. Her 
teeth were white, and it seemed that nature took 
special pains in making them in a uniform size, 
and in adjusting them in such a way that they 
would be attractive, and an object of admiration 



110 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

to all with whom she came in contact. Her 
dresses were always neat and clean. They were 
such as were worn by the nurses and chamber- 
maids of the well-to-do white folks of that day 
and time. This beautiful girl — Isabella — be- 
longed to Mr. Charles Durant, who lived on 
Lynches river, about five miles above Lynchburg, 
on the main road to Bishopville. This put a 
space of some twelve miles or more between 
Jimmie and his lover. And while he loved her 
dearly, yea, with all his heart, yet he could not 
go to see her. The distance was too great, and 
he was too shy and young. Therefore he had to 
wait until the spring season, when the quarterly 
meeting took place at the Methodist church at 
Lynchburg, or until the fall, when the annual 
camp-meeting was held at the old Tabernacle 
camp ground on Lynches river about four miles 
below Lynchburg. 

As already stated, the Methodist parsonage 
was located at Lynchburg, and, perhaps, the 
largest and most important church of the circuit 
was at this point. And when the quarterly meet- 
ing of this church took place, it brought together 
many people from different parts of the circuit, 
and among them were the Friersons and the 
Durants. It was here that Jimmie would have 
the privilege >f meeting his sweetheart — Isabella. 

Ill 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

She was nurse and waiting maid for the Durants, 
and was invariably brought along to care for the 
baby. Jimmie was coachman, and came as dri\^er 
for the Frierson girls. While the services would 
be going on in the church, and the minister would 
be delivering one of his most eloquent discourses 
to an intensely interested audience, Jimmie and 
Isabella would be sitting out in the carriage talk- 
ing love, and making plans which they could 
never be able to execute. Being slaves — and 
quite youthful at that — there were insurmount- 
able barriers in the way, which they did not 
dream of. But it was a great pleasure for 
them to meet on these big meeting occasions, 
and look at each other, smile at each other, 
and tell each other how much each loved 
the other. One did not doubt the sincerity 
and genuineness of the other's love. Each felt 
that their love was reciprocated, and this, in a 
measure, gave them satisfaction. These quar- 
terly meetings lasted only about two days — Sat- 
urday and Sunday — and thus ended the inter- 
views of Jimmie and his beloved Isabella. These 
meetings usually were held every tliree months 
on the charge, but in the Lynchburg church it 
took place in the spring of the year, and these 
lovers would meet no more until the fall, when 
the great Tabernacle camp-meeting came on. 



112 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

The location of this camp ground has already 
been mentioned. The annual camp-meetincj was 
a great occasion. Everybody went to camp-meet- 
ing — white and colored. Many of the prominent 
farmers connected with the Lynchburg circuit, 
were tent-holders at this camp ground. Mr. 
Frierson and Mr. Durant had tents on the same 
line. These tents were built of pine lumber, and 
in cottage style. They were built with several 
rooms, and with front piazzas. They formed a 
large circle, with the tabernacle, or church, in 
the center. Elevated scaffolds, about three feet 
square, with earth thrown up on them, and a 
bright lightwood blaze burning on the top, con- 
stituted the lighting system of the encampment. 
In addition to these scaffold-lights, there were 
bonfires built on the ground in front and in the 
rear of each tent. All culinary work was usually 
done at this fire in the rear. 

When the trumpet would sound, which was a 
signal for the commencement of the services at 
the tabernacle, and when the white folks and 
the more serious servants and slaves would repair 
thither for worship, Jimmie would go over to Mr. 
Durant's tent, and spend the evening with his 
beloved Isabella, or at least until services at the 
tabernacle were out. This was done each even- 
ing, while the camp-meeting lasted, which usually 

113 
8— O. P. 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

was five or six days. These camp-meetings were 
great occasions. In fact, they were the biggest 
occasions that came within the experience of 
plantation life, and were hugely enjoyed by all, 
white and colored, old and young, male and 
female. 

The last camp-meeting that Jimmie and Isa- 
bella attended was in the fall of 1864. The 
following year the white people who owned 
Isabella moved away to parts unknown to 
Jimmie. Hence he gave up all hope of ever 
seeing his lover again, and doubtless Isabella did 
the same. But while the sacred flame of love 
burned down, it was never completely extin- 
guished. 

In the fall of 1865, as has already been stated 
in a previous chapter, Jimmie left the old planta- 
tion, and went to the Yankees at Sumter. The 
provost marshal returned him to his father, who 
lived on a rented farm near Lynchburg. Here 
Jimmie worked on his father^s farm during the 
summer months, and went to school at Lynch- 
burg in the winter. After completing the course 
in this school, his father sent him to a school of 
a higher grade at Sumter. About this time 
Jimmie was converted, and became a Christian. 
He also felt that he was divinely called to preach 
the Gospel to his people. Consequently his 



114 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

father sent him to Charleston, S. C, to study 
divinity in the Baker Theological Institute, and 
afterwards to Claflin University at Orangeburg. 

In December, 1870, at the age of 20, he joined 
the South Carolina Conference of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, and was sent to Cheraw. He 
arrived at this historic old town on a Saturday 
night, and was met at the station by one of the 
officers of his church by the name of Johnson. 
This brother accompanied the young pastor to 
his own home, where he spent the night. 

The next morning, which was the Sabbath, the 
young preacher repaired to the church in com- 
pany with Brother Johnson. There was a large 
congregation present to see, and hear the new 
preacher. Expectation, born of genuine curiosity, 
was at its height. This was true of both the peo- 
ple and the preacher. 

At the close of the services, the people — both 
the brothers and the sisters — gathered around 
the chancel to become acquainted with the new 
pastor, and to extend to him a warm w^elcome. 
Among the sisters, w^ho came forward, Jimmie 
noticed one who exhibited traces of having been a 
most beautiful woman. She was tall, with fair 
skin; dark eyes, and straight black hair. But 
Jimmie also noticed that her teeth had been 
shattered, and some of the front ones were gone. 



115 



I^IFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

But he suspicioned and suspected nothing. Jim- 
mie was an innocent and inexperienced young 
fellow. But this woman, like every other mem- 
ber of her sex, possessed a woman's instinct. 
While the other folks withdrew from the altar, 
she still lingered, and once more brought herself 
face to face with the young stranger. 

Then she ventured to say to him : ^'I think I 
have met you somewhere before." ^^I do not 
remember," said the young pastor. "But where 
are you from?" said the woman. "Lynchburg is 
my home," answered the preacher. "Well, please 
pardon me, were you ever a slave?" asked the fair 
inquirer. "I was," he replied. "Well, to whom 
did you belong?" she asked. "I used to belong to 
the Friersons on Pudden Swamp." "Well, please 
tell me what might be your first name." "My 
first name is James, but all my friends call 
me ^Jimmie.' " "Oh, don't say so!" she said, 
excitedly, while her beautiful black eyes filled 
with tears. She then gently dropped her head, 
and wiped her eyes with a handkerchief that was 
well saturated with cologne. When she had suc- 
ceeded in getting her face straight, she looked up 
and said in a very familiar way, "Jimmie, don't 
you know me?" He replied, "I can't say that I 
do." Tlien came the astounding words, "I am 
Isabella, tliat used to belong to Mr. Cliarles 



116 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

Durant." Jimmie was stricken witli dumbness, 
and when he became able to break the sHence, all 
he could say was : "Well, well, well." It is need- 
less to say that they were glad to see each other : 
for their joy was inexpressible. For a few 
moments, while they stood there, tliey gave a 
brief account of their whereabouts during the six 
or seven years since they last met at the old 
tabernacle camp ground. During this period 
Isabella had married, and she and her husband 
both were members of Jimmie's church. 

About this time, he met a young woman of edu- 
cation, a successful school teacher, whom he 
courted and married. She was born of free 
parents, and reared in one of the large cities of 
the South. She is a woman of deep piety ^ and 
sustains a high moral standard. She is a great 
church worker, and much of Jimmie's success in 
the ministry has been attributed to the aid she 
has given him. She has proved herself to be a 
helpmeet indeed. Isabella was beautiful, but 
was not a woman of education, and therefore 
could not have filled the bill, and God knew it, 
and, in His wisdom, ordered otherwise. In dis- 
cussing this matter, Jimmie has often been heard 
to repeat the lines : 

"In each event of life, how clear 
Thy ruling hand I see ! 
Each blessing to my soul more dear, 
Because conferred by thee." 

117 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

But all through life Isabella continued to show 
a fondness for Jimmie. Some years after this, 
she moved away to the Land of Flowers, and, as 
an evidence of her friendship for him, she 
shipped him a crate of beautiful Florida oranges. 
Since that they have lost siglit of each other. 

N. B. — Since the above chapter was written, 
Jimmie, in his wanderings, chanced to meet a 
sister of Isabella, and from her he learned that 
she (Isabella) moved from Florida to New Jer- 
sey, where she died. Thus ended the earthly 
career of a beautiful woman, and a lovely char- 
acter. But Jimmie is still alive, and is doing 
active work as a gospel minister. 



118 



CHAPTER XIII. 
The Breaking Up of the Old Plantation. 

On the morning of April 12tli, 1861, the first 
gun of the great Civil War was fired. It was 
fired on Fort Sumter from a Confederate battery 
located in Charleston harbor. It was a terrific 
bombardment of thirty-four hours' duration. 
This was the beginning of a struggle which 
resulted in the emancipation of 4,000,000 of 
slaves. On the 1st day of January, 1863, Presi- 
dent Abraham Lincoln issued his famous Eman- 
cipation Proclamation, and it completely swept 
away the institution of African slavery, which 
had had an existence on the American continent 
for two hundred and forty-four years. But this 
Proclamation did not go into universal effect 
until General Lee surrendered at Appomattox 
Courthouse on the 9th of April, 1865. 

At this time — April 9th — the farmers in the 
South had pitched their crops. The corn, the 
cotton, and the potatoes had been planted, were 
up, and growing nicely. And now comes the 
emancipation of all the slaves, and if they all 
leave the old plantation at once, what would be 
the result? It meant starvation and death both 



119 



LIFE 0.\ THE OLD PLANTATION 

for tlie white folks and the newly made freedmen. 
But the authorities at Washington relieved the 
situation by advising the landlords and the ex- 
slaves to enter into contracts to remain together 
until the folloAving January, to work the crops, 
and to divide them at the harvest in the fall. 
This w^as done. 

We come now to the most pathetic part of our 
story, namely: "The Breaking Up of the Old 
Plantation." And well do I remember it. I do 
not remember the day of the week — whether it 
was Monday, Tuesday, or some other w^eek-day — 
but most vividly do I remember the scene. 

Mr. Frierson — on a certain day — requested all 
the hands on the plantation to come to the 
"house." The men, the women, and the children 
were included in his order. And some of the free 
colored people of the neighborhood lieard of the 
order, and they also came to see and hear. In 
those days of excitement, curiosity reached a 
high degree of feverish expectation and desire for 
knowledge, for information, and for light. The 
slaves had heard of the Emancipation Proclama- 
tion, which had been issued a little more than two 
years before, but which had never changed their 
condition. They had also heard of the surrender 
of General Lee, which put an end to the war. Mr. 
Adolphus — a Confederate soldier — had returned 



120 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

home, and there he sat at a small table on the 
front piazza, writing. The paper which he was 
writing afterwards proved to be the contract 
between the landlord and the ex-slaves, which 
they w^ere called together to sign. 

It was a beautiful spring day. There was not 
a cloud in the heavens to obscure the brightness 
of the sun. The yard in front of the piazza, and 
in front of the east end of the same, was crowded 
with negroes. Their faces were all turned toward 
Mr. Frierson, who stood on the piazza with the 
contract in his hand. Their eyes were fixed on 
him, and their ears were attentive. But before 
he read the contract, he made to them a speech. 
He spoke, in part, as follows : 

"My Servants: I call you together today, to 
read this contract to you, and liave you all to sign 
it. This is the order issued by the Government 
at Washington. The North and the South have 
been engaged in a four-years' bloody war. As 
you all know, I have had two sons at the front — 
your Marse Rush and your Marse Adolphus. 
Your Marse Rush was killed in battle by those 
cruel Yankees, and is buried in an unknown 
grave in that far off land. Your Marse Adolphus 
—through a kind Providence— passed through 
the awful struggle without receiving as much as 
a scratch, and has been permitted to return home 



121 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

to US again. I know you all are glad, and rejoice 
with me in his safe return. 

"But I must now tell you that you all are no 
longer my slaves. All the colored people who 
have been held in the South as slaves are now 
free. Your freedom is one of the results of the 
war, which has just closed. I do not know what 
you all are going to do after this year. I do not 
know whether you intend to leave me, and go out 
to seek homes elsewhere, or whether you will 
remain. But I want to assure you that I will be 
glad to have you all remain — every one of you. 

"There is not one among you that was not 
born in my house, save four, namely: Uncle 
Fridie and his wife, and Uncle Isom and his wife. 
These four came into my possession by inherit- 
ance. They were my father's slaves, and when he 
died, at the division of his estate, they fell to me. 
I have kept them through all these years, even 
down to old age. And when they became so old 
and feeble that they could not work, I liave 
kindly clothed, fed and cared for them. I have 
made them as comfortable in their declining 
years as it was possible for me to do. 

"Then again, I declare unto you that I have 
not been cruel to any of you. I have not abused 
you myself, and did not allow anybody else to do 
it — not even my own sons. Mack, Rush, nor 

122 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

Adolphus. And all the neighborhood knew that 
I did not wish to have my negroes imposed upon. 
The patrols so understood it. And to avoid 
trouble with them, and to keep them from slasli- 
ing your backs when they caught you away from 
the plantation, I always wrote you a ticket or a 
pass. But some of you have gone off without my 
knowledge, and without a ticket, and have been 
caught and whipped, but it was not my fault. I 
was not to blame for that. You, yourselves, were 
responsible for it. 

"There is another thing which I want to call 
your attention to. I have never put an overseer 
over you, neither have I employed a ^nigger 
driver' on my plantation. I have owned no blood 
hounds, and have not given any encouragement, 
nor employment to those who have owned tliem. 
I have never separated, by selling nor by buying, 
a mother and her child ; a husband and his wife. 
Of tlie truth of this, you will bear me witness. 
In all these matters, I have the approval of a 
good conscience. 

"And now, I wish to say again, you are no 
longer my slaves, but you all are now free. And 
I want to say to you that I bear no ill-will toward 
you. You are not responsible for the great change 
that lias come upon us, and for the separation of 
master and servants. Others are responsible 



123 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

for these things. In the future let us be friends 
and good neighbors. You all have been taught 
to work, and to behave 3^ourselves, and I hope 
you will continue to lead such lives in the 
future.'- 

At the close of this talk, Mr. Frierson read the 
contract, in which it was agreed that all the 
slaves should remain on the plantation until the 
first day of January, 1866, when the crop would 
be divided. When he had finished reading, the 
older heads of these ex-slaves filed in one by one, 
and touched the pen in the hand of Mr. Adolphus, 
and made their mark. Thev then left the vard, 
and returned to their work. 

But what were their feelings? Ah! words are 
inadequate to describe them. Their joy was 
unspeakable. But they had good sense. They 
imagined what were the feelings of the white 
folks because of the loss of their slaves. They 
knew that they were chafed in their minds, and 
that an outward demonstration of joy on their 
part would be unwise. Therefore their rejoicing 
was a subdued rejoicing. Though they had been 
kindly treated, and their relations to, and their 
attachment for, the white folks had been one of 
tenderness, yet they welcomed the change, and 
were glad of the new order of things. But they 
scarcelv knew what it all meant. It was decid- 



124 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

edly a new experience to them. They all 
remained except Jimmie until January. 

During the fall the crops were harvested and 
divided according to the provisions of the con- 
tract, and when January came, there was a break- 
ing up, and a separation of the old plantation. 
Nearly all the slaves left and went out and made 
contracts with other landlords. A few remained 
for one year, and then the last one of them pulled 
out and made their homes elsewhere. Thus they 
were all scattered, as it were, by the four winds 
of the heavens, never to come together again 
until the judgment. 

Sometime during the next spring (ISGG) Mr. 
Frierson, the proprietor of the old plantation, 
went out into tlie field to view his growing crop, 
and fell with a paralytic stroke, and died soon 
after. He was buried at the old family grave- 
yard. 

In 1886, just twenty years after the breaking 
up and separation of the old plantation, Jimmie, 

the mail boy, (now the Rev. ) returned to 

Lynchburg to visit his parents — Uncle Tom and 
Aunt Namie. It was during this visit that Jim- 
mie proposed to his mother that they visit once 
more the Friersons' at the old plantation on 
Pudden Swamp. He thought he discovered in 
himself a sorter hankering desire to revisit the 



125 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTxiTION 

place where he first saw the light, and view once 
more the scenes of his childliood. He had heard 
that Mr. Frierson — the old man — had gone to his 
long home, so had Mr. Adolphus, but the girls 
were still living, and occupied the old mansion 
on the Frierson plantation, and Jimmie wanted 
to see them once more in this life. Hundreds of 
times Jimmie had driven those girls in the car- 
riage while attending "big meetings," weddings, 
and while making social calls. In those days 
these girls were good to Jimmie, and he had not 
forgotten it. Now, he wants to see them for the 
last time, so he persuaded his mother to accom- 
pany him to the old plantation. This she readily 
consented to do. 

After breakfast one morning Jimmie hitched 
up his father's horse and buggy and, with his 
mother, started for Pudden Swamp. They drove 
up into the yard at the Friersons' just as the old 
clock in the "house" struck 12, and Jimmie 
recognized the familiar tones of the old time- 
piece, and it so filled him with glee that as he 
alighted from the buggy, he said: "That is the 
same old clock by which I used to rise at four in 
the morning, and blow the horn for the boys to 
come and feed the horses and the mules." And 
so it was. 



126 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

But the girls were filled with surprise. They 
did not recognize Jimmie. They recognized tlie 
woman who was with tliis young stranger. They 
knew Aunt Namie very well. They had seen lier 
several times since she left the old plantation. 
This was not the first time that she had visited 
them, and once or twice the girls had driven up 
to Lynchburg to see Aunt Namie. These girls 
loved Aunt Namie, and Aunt Namie loved them, 
and it was their delight to visit each other, and 
talk over old times. 

When this young stranger helped Aunt Namie 
from the buggy, tlie white girls rushed up to her 
and kindly greeted her. It certainly was a warm 
meeting. Jimmie then proceeded, as they used 
to say on Pudden Swamp, "to loose out the 
horse." And while doing so, he carefully watched 
the women folks as they embraced each other, 
but he had nothing to say. But the girls were 
pondering the expression which they heard this 
young stranger make as he drove up into the 
yard: "That is the same old clock by which I 
used to rise at 4 o'clock in the morning, and blow 
the horn for the boys to come and feed the horses 
and the mules.'' They closely eyed him, but there 
was nothing about him that would enable them 
to detect him. He was well dressed, and had an 
air of refinement about him which they were not 



127 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

accustomed to see about the male darkies on 
Pudden Swamp, notwithstanding they had been 
free for upwards of twenty years. 

Now, the girls ventured to ask: ''But, Aunt 
Namie, who is this man you have with you?" 
Aunt Namie replied : ''Why, Miss Mary Ann, 
you don't know who that is?'' "No," was the 
response. "Why," said Aunt Namie, "that is my 
little Jimmie, don't you know him." "Aunt 
Namie," said Miss Mary Ann, "do you mean to 
say that that is Jimmie, our little mail boy and 
our coachman?" "Yes, that is Jimmie." "Come 
here, Jimmie," said the girls, "give us your hand. 
How glad we are to see you. How have you been 
all these years?" This was another glad meet- 
ing. The balance of the day was spent as a 
reunion of the members of a family long sepa- 
rated. 

The ladies showed Jimmie where to give the 
horse water, and where to feed him. Then they 
invited Aunt Namie and Jimmie into the house. 
Dinner was about ready, and a side table was set 
in the dining room for the visitors. It was the 
same old dining room, and it was a real good old- 
fashion farmer's dinner. Aunt Namie and Jim- 
mie enjoyed it immensely. 

After dinner, Jimmie left his mother and the 
girls to spend the afternoon talking about old 



128 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

times, while lie alone roamed over that old plan- 
tation. From field to field he went, without seem- 
ing to grow weary, observing and noting every 
change. He noticed tliat the fences, the gates, 
the bars, and the bridges over the ditches were 
all gone. And in many places the fields had 
grown up with undergrowth and looked like 
woods again. "Ah," said Jimmie, "how cruel old 
Time is. He has laid his decaying hand upon 
everything on the old plantation. That which he 
has not destroyed, he has left in a state of decay 
and ruin. The colored folks are all gone, and 
only two of the white folks are left to tell the sad 
story." 

But there is one thing that interested Jimmie 
more than anything else, and that is tlie spot 
where he first learned to sin. Jimmie located the 
place as nearly as possible, owing to the changes 
which time had wrought in the face of the 
country. And when lie had found it, he knelt 
down and prayed to the God of heaven, and asked 
forgiveness for all the sins that he ever bad com- 
mitted on the old plantation, or anywhere else, 
and then reconsecrated himself anew to God and 
to His service. Then he arose, and returned to 
the old mansion, and chatted with the girls until 
it was time for him and his mother to leave for 
home. 

129 
9 — O. P. 



LIFE ON THE OLD PLANTATION 

This last separation was a very sad one, for the 
reason that they all knew that they would never 
meet on earth again. And so it came to pass. 
They have all crossed the mystic river, save Jim- 
mi e, and have been gathered to their people on 
the other side. Tears were shed by all — white 
folks and colored folks — as they shook hands, 
and said, ^^Good-bye.'' 

The End. 



130 



APPENDIX. 



Signs of a Better Day for the Negro 
in the South. 



Being the Reprint of a Series of Ari;icles Written for 

The Daily Record of Columbia, S. C^ 

by Rev. I. E. Lowery. 



APPENDIX 
I. 

Introduction. 

After consulting the editor of The Record, and 
obtaining his consent, the writer has concluded 
to write a series of articles on the subject, "Signs 
of a Better Day for the Negro in the South,'' and 
it is his wish that these articles be published in 
the Saturday afternoon's paper, so as to form a 
column of Sabbath reading for the members of 
his race. This article is intended to be an intro- 
duction to what is to follow. 

"Signs of a better day for the negro in the 
South." But the negro reader will ask: "Are 
there any signs anywhere that foretell of a better 
day in the South for the negro?" And the writer 
answers, "Yes." The trouble with the majority 
of the colored people is, they look on the dark 
side of the picture too much. They read the 
daily papers and note the cases of lynchings, 
burnings, murders and the outrages committed 
on members of the race generally, and then they 
grow discouraged, and say the future of the negro 
in the South is dark, and is growing darker still. 
But not so, could he but read aright. First of 
all, the best white people of the South are 
opposed to these crimes being committed against 

133 



APPENDIX 

the members of our race. The best and most 
influential papers of the South, both daily and 
weekly papers, are opposed to it, and they speak 
out in no uncertain sound against it. And what 
is the result? These crimes have gradually grown 
less. The facts prove that tlie brutal offense 
against the purity of womanhood has diminished, 
and the sickening crimes of lynchings, burnings, 
murders and outrages have largely decreased. 

I herewith submit a clipping from a Northern 
paper : 

"According to statistics, lynchings were fewer 
in 1909 than the year previous. Seventy-eight 
lynchings took place in the United States in 
1909, a greater number tlian in any year since 
1904, except 1908, with 100 summary executions. 
In 1907 there were 63, and in 1906 there were 72. 
The victims of the 1909 lynchings were 65 
negroes and 13 whites. All but five negroes were 
in Southern States. Illinois and Oregon were 
the only Northern States to furnish instances of 
mob law last year, and two cases were recorded 
in the Territory of New Mexico. 

"Virginia barely missed a record of *no lynch- 
ings' in 1909. On Christmas day a mob at Hur- 
ley hanged a white man. Except for this tragedy, 
Virginia would have been the only Southern 
State with a clear record on lynchings for the 
yeMT 

134 



APPENDIX 

"In Oklahoma there was a quadruple lyncliing 
of cattle men, and there were several double 
lynchings in Southern States. Texas led with 13 
cases and Georgia was a close second with 12. 

"Crimes and alleged crimes against white 
women were the principal causes, and accusa- 
tions of murder and theft were responsible for 
many cases. A charge of counterfeiting was the 
incentive in one case and kidnapping in another." 

A careful reading of the above clipping will 
show that the crimes that incite to mob violence 
are not as numerous now as they have been some 
years in the past. This, evidently, is a sign of a 
better day for tlie negro in the South. 

Not long since the writer was coming from 
Florence to Columbia. He passed through the 
gate at the union station into the yard where the 
trains stood on the several tracks. There was a 
stream of passengers following behind him. 
Some were white people, and some were colored. 
He heard the voice of some one inquiring of the 
gate keeper — in a joking way — if his ticket would 
take him to "Lynchburg,'^ and on which track 
his train stood. Hearing the name "Lynchburg" 
called (which is a small station only 20 miles 
west of Florence), attracted the writer's atten- 
tion ; for it is the place of his birth. He turned to 
see the person who was speaking, and who was so 
good-natured, and so full of life — and at once he 

135 



APPENDIX 

thought he recognized the individual and waited 
on the inside until he came through. He 
approached the stranger and said to him, "Sir, 
excuse me, but will you please tell me your 
name?'' He said, "My name is E. D. Smith, 
junior United States senator from South Caro- 
lina." He then looked at the writer more closely 
and said, "Is this Irving Lowery?" and the reply 
was, "Yes." We were both born and raised at 
Lynchburg and played together when we were 
boys. We stepped inside and chatted pleasantly. 
Really we were boys again for a while. 

Now, here are some of the things he told me. 
He first had something to say about 14 and 15 
cents cotton. Everybody knows that that is Sen- 
ator Smith's favorite theme. But he went on to 
say : "Lowery, the South is undergoing a change. 
She is getting out of her old grooves of thought 
and action. The motto of the South today is: 
Every man, irrespective of race or color, shall 
have a chance in the race of life." The writer, 
with his breast heaving with emotion, said: 
"Mr. Smith, is not this great change which has 
come over the South due to the young men and 
to tlie young women of tlie South?" and he 
answered, "Yes." Thus ended one of the most 
pleasant interviews the writer has ever had in his 
life. It is to be taken for granted that Senator 
Smith knows the South as well, or better, than 

136 



APPENDIX 

any other man, for he travels all over the South, 
and he is in a position to speak for the South 
with authority. At any rate, his statement comes 
to the negro like good news from a far country 
and should fill him with hope and with aspira- 
tion, for there is a better day ahead of him right 
here in the land that gave him birth. Only let 
him cease from crime; let him be industrious, 
and let him educate his cliildren and tlie wliite 
people of the South will see to it that he shall 
have fair chance in the race of life. 



11. 

White Patrons of Negro Business Enter- 
prises. 

The industrial achievements of the negro race 
in the South are signs of a better day. It is said 
by tliose who claim to know, tliat in the North 
the negro seldom engages in any independent 
business. Up there most of tlie colored popula- 
tion are cooks, chambermaids, nurses, laundry- 
women, butlers, coachmen, elevator boys and 
hotel waiters. This is all they can hope to be. 
Of course, there are some colored ministers up 
there, and here and there a lawyer, a physician 
and a few mechanics. But in the South the negro 

137 



APPENDIX 

fills all of these minor and higher callings, and, 
in addition, he may become a farmer, a merchant, 
or even a college president. 

I clipped the following from the editorial col- 
umns of The News and Courier, of Charleston, 
April 9th, 1907 : 

"In Charleston all the laundry wagons are 
driven by colored men, we believe. Nearly every 
delivery wagon sent out by the dry goods, grocery 
and other commercial establishments Here is 
driven by a colored teamster. Nearly all the bar- 
bers in town are colored, many of them owning 
their own plants. There have been colored men 
on the Charleston police force for nearly forty 
years. There are also colored firemen employed 
here and paid by the city for their services. The 
drivers of the carriages of our best people are 
colored men. Quite a number of colored men are 
doing business here on their own account, and 
have been for years, and number among their cus- 
tomers many of the best white people in the 
town. There are four or five colored physicians 
practicing here. There are in Charleston, besides, 
colored lawyers and colored teachers. Many of 
the best dressmakers are colored women, and 
colored trained nurses are employed to attend 
white patients. There are also colored farmers, 
and one of tlie largest rose gardens in the South 
is owned by a colored man at Charleston. There 

138 



APPENDIX 

are also in this town colored mechanics and 
colored contractors and colored labor unions. 
The most of the house servants emph.yed in 
Charleston are colored, and now that tiie auto- 
mobile microbe is infecting this community it is 
not an unusual sight to see these modern 
machines operated by colored chauffeurs."' 

It is true, and every intelligent person knows 
it, that every avenue of legitimate business is 
open to the negro in the South. And there is 
another thing that is true, and that is this : that 
it matters not what might be the nature of the 
business that a colored man may engage in, the 
white people, and the best white people, of the 
South, will patronize him. For instance, in 
Charleston, the butcher's business is largely con- 
trolled by colored men. This is true both in the 
down-town market and also in the green grocery 
business, as it is called, throughout the city. 
Gilliard & Fludd, T. S. Grant, John Stokien, Tom 
Marshall, the Hoffman Brotliers, and Trescott, 
are among the leading colored butcliers, and they 
do a large business, and serve some of tlie best 
white people of tlie city. C. C. Leslie, the colored 
fish merchant, did a fine business for nearly 
thirty years. He did a liea^^ business in supply- 
ing the local market, and shipped large quanti- 
ties of fish to all parts of the State to botli white 
and colored customers. Keally, Leslie has become 

139 



APPENDIX 

rich, and last year he sold out his business to a 
white man and retired, and is living in ease and 
comfort on his income. 

Thaddeus Felon, of Summerville, owns a fine 
brick store near the Southern depot, in which he 
conducts a large dry goods store, employing 
colored girls as clerks, and the white people — 
gentlemen and ladies — trade with him. Of 
course he is making money. In this same town 
Dr. Allston practices medicine and conducts a 
livery business. Hoffman also conducts a livery 
business and runs a butcher shop. The Sasportas 
Brotliers are butchers on a large scale. All of 
these colored business men have white friends 
who patronize their business liberally. 

In Sumter, W. J. Andrews has been engaged in 
business for more tlian 30 years. He kept a first 
class restaurant for white and colored, having 
separate rooms for each race, and sold fish, oys- 
ters and ice. He did the largest business of this 
kind of any man in Sumter. He made money 
and is considered one of the wealthiest colored 
men of the town. He made the most of his money 
out of the white people, who thought that there 
was no negro in Sumter like "Bill Andrews." 
Tliey believed him to be honest, industrious and 
trutliful, hence they did not hesitate to trade 
witli him. In Camden, Eugene Dibble is the best- 
to-do colored man of tlie town. When the writer 

140 



APPENDIX 

visited that town last lie owned and operated 
three stores and several farms. He is also the 
* proprietor of several tenement houses. It is 
evident to the casual observer tliat this accumu- 
lation of property was not tlie result of colored 
patronage alone, but the facts show that much of 
it is the fruit of his white trade. 

The city of Columbia has produced some suc- 
cessful colored business men, who have accom- 
plished much through the patronage of their 
white friends. There was R. J. Palmer, who 
conducted a business as a merchant tailor on 
Main street nearly opposite the postoflfice, and 
made money. "Cap'' Carroll, as he was 
familiarly called by his friends (I mean C. R. 
Carroll), conducted an up-to-date white barber 
shop, and when he died he left his family in 
comfortable circumstances. He made his money 
out of the white people, and many of them, as 
well as hosts of colored people, regretted his 
death. And there is I. S. Leevy, a young man 
of intelligence and thrift, who is doing a good 
business as a tailor on Taylor street. He was 
educated at Hampton Institute in Virginia, 
where he learned the tailor's trade. He numbers 
some of the best white people of Columbia as his 
customers. 

A few years ago, Charles Stewart, the noted 
negro newspaper correspondent of Chicago, was 

141 



APPENDIX 

making a tour of the South, and spent a couple 
of days in Newberry. In bis letter to Tbe Afro- 
American Ledger, a negro journal, published in 
Baltimore, Md., be speaks as follows of some of 
tbe colored people of Newberry : 

"We bave some men in business bere. T. A. 
Williams & Sons operate tbe grocery store right 
in tbe business section of tbe city and spitting 
distance of tbe court bouse. He owns 1,400 
acres. of land and some good property right in the 
citv. 

"G. C. Williams, wiio is brother to the one I 
have mentioned, owns 600 or TOO acres of land 
and is doing well. Robert Williams joins bis 
brother, Thomas Williams, in owning and operat- 
ing a brick yard; John D. Daniels perhaps is 
the leading meat man in town. It is said tliat he 
knows more about the meat business and has the 
largest trade. Some of the best white people in 
town buy meat from him. He also carries a full 
line of groceries, and is a property owner. 
W. TV. Grail am owns a grocery store, and is 
doing good business; A. G. Neeley is a young 
man in business. He has a grocery, and his wife 
is in charge of the business while he attends tbe 
farm. They are happy and are doing well. He 
owns some good property himself. Mrs. Mattie 
Neeley operates an eating bouse, and she does 
a good business, while her husband beats out 

142 



APPENDIX 

iron. He is one of the leading blacksmitlis of 
the town. He lias as his partner, John Morgan, 
who knows how to operate, too." 

In Anderson, a blacksmith, by the name of 
David Dooly, has earned and saved a small for- 
tune. He works for the best white people of the 
town and county. He is skilled as a workman, 
is honest, truthful and perfectly reliable. He 
owns several good houses, and his note is good at 
any of the banks in town. But why go further 
in naming others, for men like these are found in 
almost every town and city in the South. Yes, 
there are colored men all over the South engaged 
in business and the white people do not hesitate 
to patronize them. They know that some of these 
negroes are making money, yet they are not 
envious, but trade rigiit along with them, and 
thus help them up in the world. This is surely a 
sign of a better day for the negro in the South. 



III. 

White Contributors Toward the Building op 
Negro Churches. 

There are thousands of white people in the 
Soutli who contribute liberally toward the build- 
ing of negro churches. This may be regarded as 

143 



APPENDIX 

a hopeful sign of a better day for the colored peo- 
ple in the South. 

During tlie days of slavery the colored people 
were connected with the churches of their mas- 
ters. They were given the galleries, or a few 
seats at the rear end of the church, or, if they 
wanted to have their own services, the basement 
was given to them, and sometimes the main audi- 
torium of the church proper was turned over to 
them when not in use by the white people. Thus 
all the slaves who were Christians in that day 
and time had their church home. Their master's 
church was usually their church. If he was a 
Methodist, his slaves were Methodists ; if he was 
a Baptist, his slaves were Baptists; if he was a 
Presbyterian, 'his slaves were Presbyterians; and 
if he was an Episcopalian, his slaves were Epis- 
copalians. It mattered not what church the 
master and his family were members of, the 
slaves usually belonged to the same. 

But when freedom came, and when the newly 
made freedmen broke away from the "old planta- 
tion" and from their former masters, they left 
their church home behind them. Thev went out 
without spiritual leaders and witliout churches. 
They were as sheep having no sheplierd and no 
fold. Just at this period of tlieir history, the 
Northern missionary and the Northern school 
teacher came upon the scene. They had strong 

144 



APPENDIX 

churches at their backs, which furnished them 
with money. These missionaries and teachers 
organized churches and establislied schools for 
the uplift of the negro. But it is not to be sup- 
posed that while the Northern white people did 
much the Southern white people did nothing. 
The truth of the matter is the benevolent and 
charitable work of the Northern white people 
have been magnified, while the same kind of work 
by the Southern white people has been minim- 
ized. In fact, no publicity scarcely has been given 
to the Southern white people. But now has not 
the time come to give the Christian white people 
of the South the honor due to them for their good 
and noble work in helping the colored people to 
better their condition? If justice was allowed to 
speak, she would answer "Yes." 

But let us hear what Booker T. Washington, 
the greatest leader of the negro race, has to say 
on this subject. He says : "It may not be known 
outside of the South, and to the general public, 
but it is true that every branch of the Soutliern 
white church is assisting in some manner in the 
educational, moral and religious development of 
the negro through their college, Sunday school or 
church work. This country owes a debt of grati- 
tude already to a group of brave, unselfish, 
courageous Christian white men and women in 
the South which it can never repay. It has been 

145 

10— o. p. 



APPENDIX 

owing to the influence of this group, working in 
co-operation with the educated negro, that peace 
and harmony and good-will prevails in the South 
to the extent that it does. The future for both of 
our races is not dark." 

I think the facts will bear me out when I make 
the statement that during the 45 years of our 
freedom there has not been a single church site 
bought nor a single church building erected any- 
where in the South but what the Christian white 
people of the South put money into it. In addi- 
tion to this, there are hundreds and thousands 
of cases, where Christian white men and white 
women of the South gave the land on which to 
build cliurches for colored people. Nor has the 
day of this mission work ceased. It is still being 
carried on all over the South today. 

Now, I wish to give a few cases illustrating 
the fact that the Southern white people have 
helped and still are helping the colored people 
to secure sites and to build their churclies. Tliere 
is a remarkable case which occurred in the city 
of Charleston at the close of tlie Civil War. The 
history of this very interesting event was written 
by the Eev. W. H. Lawrence, a Nortliern wliite 
man, and published in a good-sized volume. The 
writer secured a copy of this book tlirough the 
kindness of tlie Eev. James H. Holloway, a 
prominent member of this church. The historian 

146 



APPENDIX 

says : "The history of the purchase of Centenary 
Church is an interesting evidence of God's care 
for His work. The people worshipping in the 
normal school early observed a day of fasting 
and prayer, that God would supply them with a 
suitable building. Bishop Baker heard of tliis 
touching instance of faith; he promised the 
brethren that the missionary society would assist 
them to secure a church. It was discovered that 
the Wentworth Street Baptist Church was for 
sale. This society had been so crippled by the 
war that it was determined to unite with the 
congregation worshipping at the Citadel Square 
Baptist Church. The Wentworth Street prop- 
erty is an elegant brick structure in the Corinth- 
ian style of architecture, with a fine lecture room 
attached. Its estimated value is |T5,000. 

"Negotiations were immediately begun, result- 
ing in a bargain at |20,000. This amount the 
missionary society agreed to furnish. When the 
Baptist brethren discovered that their church 
was to fall into the hands of Northern brethren 
for the use of a colored congregation, they 
imposed further conditions, which seemed likely 
to prevent the sale. They said the money must 
be paid in gold, and during the banking hours 
of an appointed day. Gold commanded a 
premium of 50 per cent., which was an addition 
of 110,000 to the stipulated price. The Charles- 

147 



APPENDIX 

ton people must raise this $10,000. Meetings 
were held, collectors appointed and an heroic 
effort made. Some of the mothers in Israel even 
contributed the money which had been sacredly 
laid away for their burial. 

"As there was not $20,000 in available gold in 
the city, a broker was authorized to purchase this 
amount in New York. The box of precious metal 
reached Charleston on the morning of the day 
when the money must be paid, or the bargain 
broken. The broker declined the draft of $20,000 
of the missionary society, which the brethren 
presented. Mr. Geo. W. Williams agreed to cash 
the draft, but as exchange then commanded a 
premium against the brethren, this involved an 
additional outlay of a few hundred dollars. Mr. 
Thomas Tulley and other well-to-do members of 
the church were fortunately able to command 
the needed amount. Mr. Williams' check was 
accepted by the broker, and a dray carried the 
box of gold to the lawyer's office, wliere the 
papers were to be signed. Just as the 2,000 
golden eagles were being rung upon the counter 
the minute hand of the clock began to count off 
the last half hour of the appointed time, and the 
property passed forever into the hands of the 
Jletliodist Episcopal Ohurch. The deed was 
made out, from motives of prudence, on account 
of the unsettled condition of the country, to the 

148 



APPENDIX 

Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, to be held in trust by Alonzo Webster, 
Charles Holloway, George Shrewsberry, John 
Gibbs, Jacob Mills, Samuel Weston, January 
Holmes and Archibald Walker, trustees of the 
Methodist Episcopal Cliurch in Charleston. This 
transaction took place on the 10th of April, 
1866." 

The point in the above piece of history, to 
which the writer wishes especially to call the 
reader's attention, is the part that Mr. Geo. W. 
Williams took in the delicate transaction. If 
he had not come to the rescue of this congrega- 
tion and cashed that draft, these people never 
would have come into possession of that mag- 
nificent property on one of the principal streets 
of Charleston. Mr. Williams was a wealthy 
banker and was highly esteemed and reverenced 
by tliese people to the day of his death. 

The church was bought in the centennial year 
of the establishment of Methodism, and therefore 
named Centenary. Tlie Rev. M. M. Mouzon is 
the present pastor, and the Rev. Jas. H. Hollo- 
way is superintendent of the Sunday school. 
The church has 1,300 members and 600 Sunday 
school scholars. 



149 



APPENDIX 



IV. 



White Contributors Toward the Building op 
Negro Churches. — (Continued.) 

In my last article I spoke of the Southern 
white people as contributors toward the building 
of negro cliurches in the South. This I regard as 
a "sign of a better day." In that article I gave 
a history of the purchase of the Centenary 
Church in Charleston, which is considered one of 
the finest negro churches in the South, and the 
part that Mr. Geo. W. Williams — a wealtliy 
banker — took in the transaction. But for him 
there would never have been a Centenary 
Church. 

But in this article I wish to mention a few 
other cases where the colored people were 
assisted by their white neighbors. Take the Old 
Bethel M. E. Church, located on the north side 
of Calhoun street in Charleston. It is one of the 
oldest and most historic buildings in the city. It 
is certainly the oldest Methodist Church in the 
fair "City by the Sea." Bishop Asbury, the first 
bishop of Methodism, preached in tlie buikling 
now under consideration. It has been moved 
twice, but now it has reached perhaps its last 
resting place. 

It is a substantial wooden building and well 
constructed. It was built in colonial days on the 

150 



APPENDIX 

northwest corner of Pitt and Callioun streets, 
the site where the new Bethel M. E. Church now 
stands. This is the church where Mr. F. J. 
Pelzer, a very wealthy gentleman, holds his mem- 
bership. This old building stood on this corner 
lot for a number of years, during which time the 
congregation grew both in numbers and wealth. 
About this time they felt the need of a better and 
more modern building. This was long before the 
Civil War. They decided to erect a new brick 
building of Grecian architecture. A large num- 
ber of colored people were connected with this 
church as members, and some of them were well- 
to-do free colored people. They occupied the 
gallery during the services. 

Now, when these white folks were arranging to 
build their new church, they told the colored por- 
tion of the congregation that if they would give 
them $1,000 toward the erection of tlie new 
church they would roll the old one to the rear end 
of the lot and give it to them. The colored people 
were delighted and went to work to raise the 
money — both the slaves and the free colored 
people. The thousand dollars were raised, and 
the old building was shoved to the rear and fitted 
up. A beautiful new building took its place, 
which stands there today. The old building 
remained on its site until the close of the war, 
w^hen the colored people went over to the 

151 



APPENDIX 

Methodist Episcopal Church. They also claimed 
the building, but they could not claim the land 
on which it stood. This belonged to the New 
Bethel congregation, and this congregation asked 
the colored people to move the building away, as 
they wanted the lot to erect a Sunday school 
room. They also promised the colored people to 
give them |500 to assist them in defraying the 
expense of moving the building. Luckily the 
colored people found a very desirable lot for sale 
just across the street (Calhoun) and they bought 
it. In the purchase of this lot there was some- 
thing that the New Bethel congregation did not 
like, and they refused to carry out their agree- 
ment of giving the colored people $500 to help 
them. They thought that they had good and 
sufficient reasons for their decision in the matter, 
but Mr. Pelzer differed from them, and stood by 
the original agreement. He wrote his personal 
check for |500 and gave it to the colored people. 
The old building was moved and fitted up and 
called "Old Betliel." The writer had the honor 
of serving this church as pastor for six years not 
long since, and it was during this period that he 
made it his business to see Mr. Pelzer in person 
and get tlie facts from liim. He gave them to me 
as related above. Mr. Pelzer is a good man, but 
he is not the only good white man in the South. 
There are thousands just like him. Are not inci- 

152 



APPENDIX 

dents like this a sign of a better day for the 
negro in the South? 

But let us consider some other cases similar to 
the one named above. During last year (1909) a 
destructive storm passed over the little town of 
Greeleyville on the Coast Line Railroad between 
Sumter and Lanes, and blew down every colored 
church in the place. The Rev. E. W. Stratton, 
a native of Columbia, is pastor of the M. E. 
Church, and he told the writer that the white 
people of Greeleyville gave him flOO to assist 
him in rebuilding his church. One white gentle- 
man, a member of the Baptist Church, gave $50 
of that amount. There is a colored Baptist 
Churcli in course of construction near Norway, 
in Orangeburg County. This is a station on tlie 
Seaboard Air Line Railway. A white gentleman 
contributed |100 toward the building fund of 
this church and endorsed a note at the bank for 
|200, given by the officers. 

But take one more case. There is a colored 
Metliodist Churcli in Spartanburg called "Silver 
Hill." The building is of brick and w^as erected 
just after the war in a very ordinary style, witli a 
school room on the first floor and the church 
auditorium above. Some 15 years ago the Rev. 
C. C. Scott was sent there as pastor, and he 
undertook the tremendous job of remodeling the 
church. He began the work, but was removed 

153 



APPENDIX 

before it was finished. The writer was sent to 
complete the work, and tlierefore had access to 
the financial records. These books shoAved that 
the white people of Spartanburg gave sometliing 
over $500 to complete the work. Among tlie 
largest contributors were: Mr. John B. Cleve- 
land, Capt. Montgomery, Mr. Converse and Mr. 
Twitchell. But a large number of the white 
citizens contributed in smaller sums. 

These are sample cases, the like of which can 
be found throughout the South. If all the inci- 
dents of this nature, which have occurred since 
emancipation, could be written it would make a 
large volume of many thousand pages. 



V. 

White Contributors Toward the Building of 
Negro Schools. 

In two articles I discussed what the white 
people of the South have done in helping the 
colored people to secure sites for their churches, 
and the assistance rendered them in erecting 
buildings thereon. But before leaving this line 
of thought, I wish to call the reader's attention 
to the schools designed for the education of the 
colored youth of the South. I do not refer to the 

154 



APPENDIX 

common school s^^stem. Tliese scliools have been 
provided by tlie State. Tlie buildings, siicli as 
they are, in most cases have been erected out of 
public funds, raised by taxation. Aside from the 
public schools located in tlie towns and cities 
there is not much being done for the education 
of the young negro. The terms are too sliort — 
lasting only from two to three montlis. Tliis is 
a serious mistake, for tlie reason that it causes 
hundreds and thousands of some of the best 
colored families to leave the farms and move 
nearer to or into the towns and cities for the 
purpose of educating their children. Wliereas 
if the rural schools were made better and the 
terms extended, the colored people would be 
more willing to stay on the farms. In that case 
the educational facilities of the country would 
measure up to the standards of the towns and 
cities, and this would make the negro farmer con- 
tented to stay where he is. These points are 
worthy of a careful consideration by the land 
owners of the South. 

But at the close of the war the negroes of the 
South were without school houses, as they were 
without church buildings. But as their church 
buildings multiplied, they were used in many 
cases as school houses. Finding that the pub- 
lic school was insufficient for the education of 
their children, the colored people began to plant 

155 



APPENDIX 

and build denominational or independent 
schools. And even in this the Soutliern white 
people have helped them. There is not a single 
denominational or independent negro school in 
the South but what the white people put money 
into it, and helped to build it. And they are still 
helping them along this line. Of course, the 
Northern people have done much and are still 
doing much, but in recent years they have begun 
to tighten the strings of their purses. They are 
not doing as much now as they have done in the 
past. They seem to be growing tired of the negro. 
They say he is a burden, and that they have 
carried him long enough. Hence each year there 
is a considerable falling off in tlie gifts of the 
Northern people. This is the universal testi- 
mony of those who are engaged in the work of 
negro education under the patronage of Northern 
philanthropists. But it must be a pleasing 
thought to the close observer of passing events to 
note that while the donations of Northern people 
toward the education of the colored people are 
annually decreasing, those of the Southern white 
people are largely on tlie increase. Tlie dona- 
tions of the Soutliern white people are given, in 
most cases, to tlie secular or independent negro 
schools. I will now proceed to mention a few 
cases in South Carolina and some of the adjoin- 
ing States. 

156 



APPENDIX 

Some time last fall it was the writer's privilege 
to visit the town of Marion. While there I spoke 
to the faculty and students of the colored graded 
school, and noticed that an additional new build- 
ing on the campus was nearing completion. I 
was told by some of the colored people of Marion 
that that building was designed as an industrial 
building, and that it w^as the gift of Judge 
Woods, one of the Associate Justices of the 
Supreme Court of South Carolina. The informa- 
tion greatly impressed me, and I regarded it as a 
"sign of a better day for tlie negro in the South.'' 
But to be sure that the information given me by 
the colored people was correct, I wrote Mr. T. C. 
Easterling, the superintendent of the city schools 
of Marion, and this is what he said, touching that 
new building: "Our colored industrial scliool 
building and equipment cost something over 
$1,100. Of this amount Judge Woods was one 
of those who gave $200 each. The colored people 
themselves gave fl32. The balance was given 
in amounts from f500 to |50. Nearly all of the 
white citizens of Marion to whom I went for 
money to build and equip our colored industrial 
school responded willingly." The above letter 
needs no comment, but I would, in passing, ask 
the reader to note the spirit of friendliness and 
charity on the part of the white citizens of 
Marion. 

157 



APPENDIX 

But one of tlie most conspicuous monuments 
of tlie charity of tlie Soutliern white people in the 
education of the negro is the Paine Institute, 
located in Augusta, Ga. The school was planted 
by the M. E. Church, South, and named after 
Bishop Paine, one of the great men of Southern 
Methodism. This school, which is one of the best 
in the South, established for the education of 
negro youth, is presided over by the Kev. George 
Williams Walker, D. D., a South Carolinian, a 
man of God, and a true friend of the colored man. 
He has devoted his best days to* the uplift and 
the betterment of the colored people of the South. 
And thousands of the sons and daughters of Ham 
will rise up in the judgment and call him blessed. 
He deals with the hearts or morals of his pupils 
as well as with the intellects. When they pass 
through his school they do not only come out as 
educated young men and women, but they come 
out as Christians, prepared to fight the battles of 
life. 

There is a school for the education of negro 
youth at Denmark, S. C. It was founded by a 
young colored woman by the name of Elizabeth 
Evelyn Wright. She was born at Talbotton, Ga., 
on April 3, 1874, and graduated from Tuskegee 
Industrial Institute, after which she came to this 
State. They have a magnificent plant of more 
than 380 acres of good farming land. These 

158 



APPENDIX 

lands are dotted with five or six splendid build- 
ings, which are well equipped for scliool pur- 
poses. The farm is well stocked with mules and 
cattle and abundantly supplied with the latest 
farming implements. A fine printing outfit has 
been installed. The school is supplied with a 
saw mill, and also a grist mill. The school plant 
is worth about |75,000 and is out of debt. Mr. 
Ralph Voorhees, of New Jersey, furnished the 
money to found this school, but it could not be 
done without the aid of the Southern white men. 
I will quote just one sentence from their latest 
catalogue, which will prove my statement : "Ex- 
Senator Mayfield, who lives at Denmark, became 
interested in her efforts, and has always been a 
friend to the work. He helped her to secure this 
large tract of land, and, all along, has he been a 
tower of strength in belialf of this negro school.'' 
The Sterling Industrial College for negro 
youth is an independent or undenominational 
school located at Greenville, S. C, and the Rev. 
D. M. Minus, D. D., is the founder and president. 
Mrs. E. R. Sterling, of Poughkeepsie, N. Y., gave 
the first money to establish tliis school, therefore 
the school has been given her name. But ^Irs. 
Sterling died soon after the school was founded, 
and the enterprise would have failed had not the 
white people of Greenville and Anderson come to 
its rescue. These good people have given thou- 

159 



APPENDIX 



sands of dollars to tlie school, which kept it 
going, and have put it on a firm basis. I quote 
one paragraph from their recent catalogue: 

"Its growth has been so rapid until in 1903 
the trustees found it necessary to sell the old 
school site, on Choice street, and purchase larger 
and more convenient quarters in West Green- 
ville, where better work, especially in the indus- 
tries, can be done. The school has now a large 
farm, president's home witli seven rooms, a main 
building containing 19 rooms, a large and com- 
fortable dining hall, with other buildings, a mag- 
nificent park with splendid springs of pure water 
and large, open grounds for athletic purposes. 
With God's blessing and guidance and the hearty 
co-operation of our friends the school will 
increase as a powerful agency in educating and 
uplifting the young men and women of our race." 

I have named only a few of tlie negro schools 
in the South that have been fostered by donations 
from the Southern white people. But similar 
schools are found in every Soutliern State from 
Virginia to Texas. Let the reader look, and see, 
and consider for himself. 



160 



APPENDIX 



VI. 



Current Incidents of. Negro Industrial 
Achievements. 

The industrial acliievements under Southern 
conditions are a sign of a better day for the 
negroes in tlie South. 

In January, 1866, tlie negroes left the old 
plantation witli nothing — absolutely nothing. 
And they were ignorant, too. They had no edu- 
cation. They only knew how to work. They 
had been taught this in slavery. But recent 
statistics show a marvelous accumulation of 
property for a period of forty years. The figures 
are almost incredible, but they are said to be 
based on government authority. Here they are: 
They own 137,000 farms and homes, which con- 
sist of 40,000,000 acres. 

These farms and homes are valued at .fT25,- 
000,000. They have personal property to the 
value of $10,000,000. Tlie different colored 
denominations own f41,000,000 of church, par- 
sonage and school property. 

But I wish to give two or three current inci- 
dents illustrating the possibilities of the negroes' 
success along industrial lines. But similar cases 
may be found everywhere in this beautiful 
Southland. 



101 

11 — o. p. 



APPENDIX 

In Camden, S. C, there is a young man by the 
name of George Wasliington Clarke, who is a 
graduate of Tuskegee Institute, Booker Wash- 
ington's school. This negro is employed by one 
of the wealthiest white gentlemen of that city as 
a gardener, or horticulturist, at a fine salary. 
He has charge of both his flower and vegetable 
gardens, and, as a result, this white citizen has a 
variety of nice, fresh vegetables the whole year 
round. 



Not long since, the writer was traveling and 
came to a certain Southern city, and took the 
trolley cars for his boarding place. And when 
the car reached the junction, where all the cars 
came together at intervals, a young colored man 
walked in, got down on his knees and lifted a 
trap-door in the middle aisle, and made a tlior- 
ough examination of the electric apparatus 
beneath tlie car. The writer saw that he was a 
car inspector, and when he had finished and 
walked out, he followed him, and asked his 
name and what salary he was paid. This 
information was willingly and freely given, but 
for prudential reasons, he requested that no pub- 
licity be made of it. But tlie fact is, the young 
negro was an electrician, and as such was given 
employment by a wealthy corporation right here 
in the South. 

162 



APPENDIX 

The wealthiest negro in the city of Atlanta, 
Ga., is A. F. Herndon. He owns and operates the 
largest barber shop in the city; is the president 
of a flourishing insurance company, and owns 
and rents some 50 dwelling houses. He is said to 
be worth |80,000, all of which has been made 
since the Civil War. 



Bishop L. J. Coppin, D. D., of the A. INT. E. 
Church, is considered one of the strongest and 
safest leaders of the colored race in America. In 
a recent lecture in Emanuel Church at Cliarles- 
ton, in speaking of the progress tliat tlie negroes 
are making in South Carolina, he said he saw in 
a white paper of this State that 55 per cent, of 
the farming lands of South Carolina is owned 
by colored people. Tlie bishop said he could 
scarcely believe the statement, but he supposed 
that it was true, for these papers generally know 
what they are talking about. If it be true, said 
the bishop, it is certainly encouraging to the 
race. 



To excel in any line of work is worthy of the 
effort. Alfred Smith, of Oklahoma, a negro, is 
put down as tlie champion cotton raiser. He lias 
taken all the premiums offered in that State for 
the first and best cotton received, also the blue 



163 



APPENDIX 

ribbon at the World's Fair, and the first prize in 
England. Smith is a native of Georgia, having 
been born near Atlanta, and claims that when 
Sherman passed through on his famous march to 
the sea, he was in tlie field ploAving with an old 
gray mule. That this good brother sliould have 
continued at the plow until he is able to receive 
80 many evidences of his ability as a cotton 
raiser, ought to be a source of inspiration to 
every negro in America. It shows that patient 
industry also has its reward. 



Robert C. Owens, of Los Angeles, Cal., has 
been very fortunate in making investments in 
real estate. He began with a small capital as an 
option dealer, which has enabled him to amass 
property valued at the enormous sum of $675,- 
000. He is a member of tlie Los Angeles Cham- 
ber of Commerce, and in a short time will have 
a monthly rent toll of ^,500. 



VIL 

Friendly Expressions of Southern White 

People for the Negro. 

On February 26, 1910, tlie writer was in Aiken 
— having gone there to attend a farmers' confer- 

164 



APPENDIX 

ence. The early train from Augusta to Black- 
ville was derailed at the freight depot, just on the 
outskirts of the town. Great crowds from the 
town and the surrounding country visited the 
scene of the wreck. Among these curious siglit- 
seers w^ere several small boys — white and col- 
ored. It was Saturday, and, the schools being 
closed, the boys were on hand in full force. 

Near the track was a hole about as large 
around as a barrel, and about as deep. This hole 
was nearly full of water, and there was a frog 
floating around in it. These boys soon lost inter- 
est in the wreck and gathered around the hole. 
They fished the frog out, and instantly a half 
dozen boys gathered up rocks and brickbats to 
kill it. They held in their hands missiles suf- 
ficient to kill a good-sized animal, with proper 
force behind tliem. The unanimous opinion of 
the boys was that the frog should be killed. Pres- 
ently another little white boy came up and said : 
'^Boys, wliat are you all going to do with that 
frog?" ^^Kill him!" cried a half dozen voices. 
*'No, don't do tliat,'' said the newcomer. "That 
frog has as much riglit to live as any of you. 
Put him back in the hole and into the water." 
And, strange to say, this boy's advice was taken, 
and the life of tlie frog was spared. It was 
thrown back into its native element, the water. 

"Now," said I, "there is the influence of one 

165 



APPENDIX 



voice when it pleads for the innocent and the 
helpless.'^ This story may be applied to the 
negro and to his surroundings. There are voices 
that cry against him, but I am glad to say that 
there are some friendly voices that plead for him. 
In this, and in my next article, I purpose to men- 
tion some of these friendly voices. 

The Atlanta riot is still fresh in the minds of 
the American people. It was a bloody affair, 
during which human lives were sacrificed and 
great damage done to the business of the city. 
Some days after the riot, tlie best citizens among 
the white people and among the colored held a 
mass meeting, in which frank and outspoken 
expressions were made. Some of these expres- 
sions I herewith reproduce. 

Mr. Charles T. Hopkins, one of the ablest law- 
yers at the Atlanta bar, a native of Tennessee 
and a graduate of Williams College, made a 
speech at this meeting, in wliich he said: "The 
negro race is a child-race. We are a strong race, 
their guardians. We have boasted of our 
superiority, and we have now sunk to this level — 
we liave slied the blood of our helpless wards. 
Christianity and humanity demand tliat we treat 
the negro fairly. He is here, and here to stay. 
He only knows how to do those things we teach 
him to do; it is our Christian duty to protect 
him. I for one — and I believe I voice the best 



166 



APPENDIX 

sentiment of tliis city — am willing to lay down 
my life rather than to have the scenes of the last 
feAv (lays repeated." 

In the same meeting a colored man arose to 
speak. He was timid and doubtful. It was Dr. 
W. F. Penn, one of the foremost colored pliysic- 
ians of Atlanta, and a graduate of Yale College. 
He said the mob went to his house to kill him, 
but he was saved by a white man, who spirited 
him away in an automobile. When he had 
finished. Col. A. J. McBride, a real estate owner 
and a Confederate veteran, arose and said with 
much feeling that he knew Dr. Penn, and that he 
was a good man, and that Atlanta meant to pro- 
tect such men. "If necessary," said Col. Mc- 
Bride, "I will go out and sit on his porch with a 
rifle." 

Ex-Governor W. S. Northen, one of the best 
known and most respected citizens of the State 
of Georgia, recently made an eloquent speech in 
that State in which he gave expression to these 
noble sentiments: "We shall never settle this 
(the race) question until we give absolute justice 
to the negro. We are not now doing justice to 
the negro in Georgia. Get into contact with the 
best negroes; there are plenty of good negroes in 
Georgia. What we must do is to ^et the good 
white folks to leaven the bad white folks, and tlie 
good negroes to leaven the bad negroes. Tliere 

167 



APPENDIX 

must be no aristocracy of crime ; a white fiend is 
as much to be dreaded as a black brute." 

Mr. Washington Gladden, in the January 
(1907) number of The American Magazine, says: 
"There are many Southern men who are deter- 
mined that the negro shall not be reduced to serf- 
dom ; who mean that he shall have a chance to be 
a man — to make of himself what God meant him 
to be." 

President Kilgo, of Trinity College, North 
Carolina, says: "The best Southern people are 
too wise not to know that posterity will judge 
them according to the Avisdom they use in this 
great concern. They are too just not to know 
that there is but one thing to do with a human 
being, and that is to give him a chance." 

Prof. Woodward, of the same college, says: 
"What is to be done with the negro race? It 
must somehow be built into this national fabric, 
and organically incorporated with the national 
life and character." 

The Kev. Edgar Gardner Murphy, of Alabama, 
says: "While the development of the higlier life 
of the negro may come slowly, even blunderingly, 
it is distinctly to be welcomed." 

Senator B. R. Tillman, in a debate in the 
United States Senate on the discharge of the 
negro troops of the Twenty-fifth Infantry, who 
were summarily dismissed from the army by 

168 



APPENDIX 

President Roosevelt, said that there were many 
good negroes. He also said that he had liad good 
negroes working for liim 30 years, and he 
believed there Avere millions of good negroes. 

Says Mr. Washington Gladden, in the January 
(1907) number of The American Magazine : "It 
is idiotic to talk of deporting the negroes to some 
other country; tliey are here, and here tliey must 
stay; and their home will be in the southern por- 
tion of the territory of the United States. 
Whether the two races shall live there togetlier 
or live there separately is the only possible ques- 
tion. They cannot live together unless both 
races have full opportunity to live a complete 
human life." 

Tliese friendly expressions from some of the 
leading white men of tlie South are signs of a 
better day for the negroes in the South. 



VIII. 

Friendly Expressions of Southern White 
People for the Negro. — (Continued). 

The friendly expressions of prominent South- 
ern white men are signs of a better day for the 
colored people of the Soutli. 

The Rev. Samuel Phillips Verner — a young 
South Carolinian, who has consecrated his life to 

169 



APPENDIX 

missionary work in Africa — pays an eloquent 
tribute to the devotion of liis faithful black fol- 
lowers in that dark continent, and by this he was 
reminded of the fidelity of the slave to his master 
in this country. Ten of his devoted men sac- 
rificed their lives that Mr. Verner's miglit be 
saved. He afterwards found an arm on the bank 
of the river, and only an arm, which told tlie sad 
story of their death in his defence. In speaking 
of this incident Mr. Verner says: "As I looked 
at it (the arm) through a mist of tears, tliere 
rose to mind another scene, a far off and happier 
land, but on a day of strife and battle, when, 
amid the cannon's roar and the shriek of the 
flying balls, an old man lay wounded and near to 
death. But a black arm encircled him, and bore 
him through the hell of battle raging around, 
safely to the rear, and to the surgeon's care, and 
then Uncle Quince stumbled himself from liis 
own sore wound, and fell, when old master was 
safe. Here it was again in Central Africa, as it 
had been in Virginia, the same dumb, unquestion- 
ing loyalty, the same blind fidelity even unto 
death. As I stood over that severed limb, I saw 
the African's people in that otlier land standing 
faithful at the plougli, while old master was away 
at the war, that same black arm keeping the 
wolf from old missus's door; I saw the African's 
arm, as it had borne the Cross, when the fainting 

170 



APPENDIX 

Saviour could bear it no more; and here it was 
again, lying all torn and gashed on that blood- 
stained shore, mute witness to the heroic fidelity 
with which they all had perished. But for me, 
may Almighty God forget my people and me, 
when I forget them and theirs !" 

Col. Henry Watterson, the famous Louisville 
editor, delivered a brilliant speech in Carnegie 
Hall, New York, in the interest of Tuskegee 
Institute — Booker Washington's school. His 
subject was, "The Future of the Negro." From 
that speech I quote as follows : 

"Nobody can go to Tuskegee, and see what I 
saw there, and come away without being 
impressed. Ever since I went there, now many 
years ago, I have been filled with hope; for 
though the institution of African slavery be 
dead, and, thank the Lord of Hosts for tliat, the 
negro is here; he is here in ever-increasing num- 
bers, and he is here to stay. All schemes for get- 
ting rid of him are fantastic, and, if attempted, 
would prove abortive. He must be developed on 
new lines, educated to an anomalous situation 
and resolved into the body of society, not as an 
irritant, but as a natural, indispensable com- 
ponent part. 

"I want notliing for myself, or for my cliildren, 
whicli I am not ready to give to my colored neigh- 
bor and his children. I live in a region peopled 

171 



APPENDIX 

by many blacks, good, orderly, hard-working folk. 
They know me, and they know that when I 
declare this I mean it. We have had no race war 
or serious racial conflict in Kentucky. The feud- 
ists of the mountains, the night riders of the 
tobacco belt, are all whites, not blacks. Reason- 
able white people and reasonable black people 
find it easy to get along much as if there existed 
no color line. Each is inspired by a sense of 
duty to the other, which, under the benign influ- 
ence of religion and humanity, may yet blossom 
into the old domestic relations of confidence and 
affection, the man-ownership clause succeeded by 
a manhood clause, at once self-respecting and 
reciprocally respected. 

^^As, during the sectional war, they were faith- 
ful servants, remaining at home, and tilling the 
fields and taking care of the women and children, 
so, since the war, according to their lights tliey 
have tried to be good citizens. I glory in every 
step of progress they have made — and tliey have 
made many strides — from that day to this. 

"I stand here tonight to declare that the world 
has never withnessed such progress from dark- 
ness to light as that which we see in those dis- 
tricts of tlie Soutli where the negro has had a 
decent opportunity for 'Self-improvement. 
Nowhere on the habitable globe has the liberated 
slave fared so well, nowhere has be so fair an 

172 



APPENDIX 

outlook as in the Southern States of North 
America. 

"Why? Because we I^now one another, and 
because, no matter what anybody may say to the 
contrary, there is a common bond of association 
between us. Never can the white man of the 
South forget what the black man did durinijj tlie 
war waged for his freedom, and what he might 
have done. Never should the black man of the 
Soutli forget tliat he is the weaker in tlie race, 
and for a long time to come must look to tlie 
white man for help of many kinds. It is through 
these reciprocal obligations and interests that tlie 
two races will reach some institutional system of 
living and doing entirely satisfactory to botli. 

"The negro in Africa has scarcely burst tlie 
chrysalis of the primitive state of man. In 
America he is yet in a state of racial childhood. 
As he realizes this, the faster he will grow, the 
quicker he will learn, and the sooner he will 
reach his racial manhood. In less than half a 
century he has achieved wonders. Before the 
century we have just begun is half over he will 
have achieved greater still. He has yet, and 
upon an extensive scale, to learn habits of 
method and order; habits of tenacity and acquisi- 
tion; habits of sustained industry and sobriety, 
without which no race — white, red, brown, or 



17B 



APPENDIX 

black — or any individual man — can get on and 
prosper. 

"He is a bad white man who will not help hia 
neighbor black man, when that neighbor black 
man shows the spirit to help himself. He is a 
bad black man who cherishes hatred in his heart 
against tlie white man because he is a white man. 
He is a foolish black man who tliinks because the 
mirage of social equality, which would prove a 
curse rather tlian a blessing, is denied him, that 
the white man hates him. Social questions the 
world over create their own laws and settle them- 
selves. They can not be forced. It is idle any- 
where for anybody to contest or quarrel with 
them. No man should wish to go where he is not 
wanted; true, self-respecting men dismiss the 
very thougiit of it, going their own way, hoeing 
their own row, and giving praise to God that 
their happiness is within tliemselves, and beyond 
the reach of any man, be he white or black, king 
or vassal." 

The Rev. Alexander Sprunt, D. D., pastor of 
the First Presbyterian church of Charleston, 
preached an able sermon to his congregation on 
December 1, 1907. His subject was, "Give the 
Negro tlie Gospel,'^ and he took for his text the 
words, "For the Jcavs liave no dealings with the 
Samaritans." Dr. Sprunt belongs to the South- 
ern Presbyterian Church, and we may take it for 

174 



APPENDIX 

granted that in this sermon he voiced the senti- 
ments of that great denomination of Christians. 
He said, in part: 

"The general assembly of the Presbyterian 
Church in the United States, commonly known as 
the Southern Presbyterian Church, appoints an 
annual collection to be taken on the first Sabbath 
in December for the evangelization of the colored 
people of our Southland. There are some who 
are very much prejudiced against this cause, 
because they have no dealings with the negro, 
and no sympathy for the work. They would 
rather give to almost anything else. Let us see, 
'the Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans.' 

"Now and then some white man maintains that 
the black man has no soul. As well doubt the 
existence of the soul altogether. The Holy Ghost 
says, 'God hath made of one blood all nations of 
men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and 
hath determined the times before appointed, and 
the bounds of their habitation; that they should 
seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, 
and find him, though he be not far from every one 
of us.' Acts 17 :26, 27. 

"Yetr it is sometimes said that neither religion 
nor education is a benefit to the race; but such 
a statement carries its own contradiction. It 
may be that some forms of religion are no benefit 
to the negro, but neither are they beneficial to 

175 



APPENDIX 



any others. Some kinds of education may not be 
helpful to them either. But these forms are not 
prescribed. We all know they are a very 
religious people, and they will have some form of 
religion. It is our part to give them a pure 
religion, and the kind of education which will 
elevate them, and make them the best of citizens, 
and most enlightened Christians. The Commis- 
sioner of Education reports to the United States 
government that ^from both a moral and religious 
point of view, what measure of education the 
negro has received has paid and there has been 
no backward step in any State. Not a single 
graduate of Hampton Institute or of the Tuske- 
gee Institute can be found today in any jail or 
State penitentiary. The record of the South 
shows that 90 per cent, of the colored people in 
prison are witliout a knowledge of trades, and 61 
per cent, are illiterate.' In 1865 only a very 
small proportion of the negroes of the South 
could read. Today not less than 30,000 are pro- 
fessors and teachers in schools and colleges. A 
vast number of well-read preachers, lawyers, doc- 
tors, mail agents and clerks are at work today. 
There are more than 150 newspapers edited by 
negroes. The percentage of illiteracy has fallen 
from 70 per cent, in 1880 to 56 per cent, in 1890, 
and to 44 per cent, in 1900. 



176 



APPENDIX 

"This race is susceptible to wholesome 
religious training and useful education. It is 
ours to give it to them. They have a right to the 
Gospel of our Lord Jesus as much as we have. 
What right have any of us to it? It is ours in 
possession by the grace of God, but not ours to 
hoard or keep to ourselves, but it is ours in trust. 

"These people are our neighbors, and the 'sec- 
ond great commandment' leaves us no liberty 
whatever in our obligations to them. 

"If, then, they are in such need, are susceptible 
of the glorious benefits of the Gospel; if they 
have a right to it, and are our neighbors, and we 
have it to give them, surely it is our duty to give 
it to them and to do so at once." 

In these two articles, I have given a few 
expressions from representative Southern white 
people for the negro. But there are white people 
like these scattered all over the South. They are 
a brave, courageous, and Christ-like band. 



IX. 

The White People^s Care of the Old Black 

Mammies. 

The care that the Southern white people take 
of tlie old black mammy is a sign of a better day 
for the negro in the South. 

177 

12 — o. p. 



APPENDIX 

The old black mammy of ante-bellum days did 
not pass away with the passing of that period. 
And it is predicted tliat it is likely that they will 
never cease to be in the South. It is a sj'stem 
that is likely to spread to the North. There is a 
mutual confidence and love that naturally 
springs up between the colored cook, nurse or 
maid on the one hand and the white people on 
the other, let them be Southern or Northern 
white folks. There are thousands of black mam- 
mies in the South today who have almost the 
entire charge of the children of some of the best 
white families. Not only are the life and health 
of these children in their hands, but the moral 
and spiritual training of the little ones likewise. 
And these children are not all motherless chil- 
dren, either — in fact, very few of them are 
motherless. Their parents are living, but because 
of the faith and confidence they have in mammy's 
integrity and religion, they turn the little ones 
over to her. She is hired to care for their bodies, 
but she does not neglect their other natures. 
And among other things that she teaches tliem 
she teaches them good manners. The molding 
hand of the old black mammy tells on the life of 
the cliild through all its future career, and even 
into the life beyond. 

For all this work the old black mammy is 
paid her wages. And when the infirmities of old 

178 



APPENDIX 

age come on and slie is not able to work any more 
she is often granted a pension by her white folks, 
or given a room in their house or yard, and fed 
from their table. In sickness the best medical 
attention is given at their expense, and often tlie 
white ladies take their turn at watching and do 
part of the nursing. Mammy's pastor and her 
church brothers and sisters are not forbidden 
to see her. And when death comes and mammy 
is dead, the white folks bury her — paying all 
funeral expenses, and frequently attend the 
funeral at tlie church. Such cases happen 
throughout the South. I will give two or three 
instances. 

At Lake City, S. C, there is a white gentleman 
— Mr. S. M. Askins — who had an old colored 
woman who lived in his family for thirty years. 
She raised his two children — Hoxie and Willie. 
The old woman's name was Lozetta McFadden. 
Mr. Askins gave her a very nice and comfortable 
home. He gave her titles for the land and built 
her a good house. He did this as a reward for 
her faithfulness, and instructed his children that 
they must never allow her to want for anj^tliing 
wliile she lived. The children have carefully 
obeved their father's instructions. Mammy 
Lozetta has alwaj^s been considered as a member 
of the Askins family, and does not hesitate to 



179 



APPENDIX 

draw on them whenever in need. And her 
requests for assistance are never denied. 

Tliere is a very touching case of this nature 
that came under the writer's own observation in 
the city of Charleston. When he was pastor of 
Old Bethel M. E. Church there was an old blind 
sister connected with that congregation whose 
name was Hagar Seabrook. She lived in the 
yard of the late Mr. Holmes on Charlotte street, 
the East Bay oil and paint merchant. The old 
sister told the writer that she raised Mrs. 
Holmes, the merchant's wife, and then assisted 
ber in raising her children. She was the cook 
and nurse, and when she became old and blind, 
Mrs. Holmes gave her a comfortable room in 
lier yard. All the wood she needed for fire was 
given to her. It was cut, split and carried to her 
room. Her meals were sent to her three times a 
day and she told tliis writer that she ate just 
what tlie wliite folks ate. All the servants in the 
yard were instructed to look after mammy and 
do for her whatever she wanted done. Every 
Sunday afternoon one of the young ladies of the 
house — one of Mrs. Holmes' daughters — would 
go to mammy's room and spend hours with her 
reading tlie Bible for her. And wlien the family 
would go to the mountains to spend tlie summer, 
Mrs. Holmes and her daughters would write 
some very beautiful, touching and consoling let- 

180 



APPENDIX 

ters to mammy. Many of these letters were read 
by the writer on the occasion when he would be 
making a pastoral visit to "Mother Seabrook," 
as she was affectionately called by lier church 
people. 

But, by and by, the old soul was paralyzed, 
but Mrs. Holmes did not forsake her. Though 
she was blind and helpless from paralysis, Mrs. 
Holmes stood by her and cared for her to the 
last. And when she died, Mrs. Holmes sent for 
a colored undertaker and told him to give 
mammy a respectable burial and send tlie bill to 
her. This was done, and the writer, assisted by 
the late Rev. Dr. J. H. Welch, who was at that 
time pastor of the Emmanuel A. M. E. Church, 
performed the burial services, Mrs. Holmes and 
her daughters being present. There are thou- 
sands of cases just like this in all parts of the 
South. 

I clipped the following touching incident from 
the American Magazine. It was written by Mr. 
Ray Stannard Baker just after the Atlanta riot. 
He says: "The mass of colored people still 
maintain, as I have said, a more or less intimate 
connection with white families, frequently a very 
beautiful and sympathetic relationship like tliat 
of the old mammies or nurses. To one who has 
heard so much of racial liatred as I have since 
I have been down here, a little incident that I 

181 



APPENDIX 

observed tlie other day comes with a charm 
hardly describable. I saw a carriage stop in 
front of a home. The expected daughter had 
arrived — a very pretty girl indeed. She stepjjed 
out eagerly. Her father was half way down to 
the gate, but ahead of him was a very old negro 
woman in the cleanest of clean starched dresses. 

" ^Iloney/ she said eagerly. ^Mammy !' 
exclaimed the girl, and the two rushed into each 
others' arms, clasping and kissing, the white girl 
and the old black woman. 

"I thought to myself : ^There's no negro prob- 
lem there : that's just plain human love.' " 

When Senator James Gordon, of Mississippi, 
was leaving the United States Senate not long 
since he read an original poem entitled, "The 
Old Black Mammy." I herewith reproduce it : 



The Old Black Mammy. 

'Tis easy to wander off from my theme 

When traveling over the ground; 
Thro' evergreen pastures across the bright 
stream 
When in fancy I wander around. 
And see in the picture whicli never grows older 
Tho' age chills the blood which never grows 
colder. 



182 



APPENDIX 

In fancy I see those good old negroes again 

I loved in the days long ago, 
As they worked in the fields of cotton and grain 

And sung as they chopped witli the hoe; 
I can never forget, wherever I roam. 
The scenes of my childhood and home. 

The dear old black mammy, so gentle and ten- 
der, 

So faithful and true to her trust — 
I loved her so well I dared not offend her ; 

She is gone, yet I honor her dust. 
From the wells of my heart arise tears of regret j 
Tho* she sleeps 'neath the sod, I can never forget. 

She was lovely to me in her colored bandanna 
With which she turbaned her head ; 

Her songs were far sweeter than flute or piano 
As she put me to sleep in my bed ; 

Her soft, crooning voice I can never forget, 

Like an angel, in dreams, she comes to me yet. 



A few years ago I clipped the following from 
the New York World : 

A Southern Woman^s Protest. 

To the Editor of The World : 

Tired of the continual warfare upon the col- 
ored race, I, a Southern woman, vigorously 

183 



APPENDIX 

shout mj protest. Accustomed to their kindly 
faces from childhood, I fling my praise. The 
negro pleads for justice. He does not crave 
equality. They are grateful, trusting and sym- 
patlietic. As to their patience, it reaches tlie 
sublime. Tliey exist against fearful odds, "Put 
yourself in his place." Heinous crimes are com- 
mitted only by the ignorant, hunted, starved des- 
perado. Such creatures frequently degrade 
every nationality. For every rascally negro (I 
am unbiased) score tenfold white demons, the 
majority arrayed in fine cloth. Day and night 
tliey await every opportunity (base human vul- 
tures, fair-skinned) to drag innocent girl vic- 
tims in the meshes of gilded vice. Lavish expen- 
diture on wines, blandishments, deceit are 
unblushingly used as a means to success. No 
man can gainsay me. Remove the causes. 

Stop this un-Christian crusade against the 
poor, downtrodden black man and educate the 
"white boss" to show him a better example. 
Fai til fully, I was rocked on the breast of a 
saintly old black mammy in my babyhood. Today 
her memory I still revere. I can not resist 
defending her helpless race. Far better give him 
a chance to earn his living than to despise and 
execute without laAvful sanction. 

^ ,. _ Louisiana. 

RD 6 6. 

184 



APPENDIX 

If there could only be more people of the same 
opinion, how much better the two races would 
get along together. There's a truth in every sen- 
tence of that person's generous letter, and we are 
glad that there is some one who thinks as she 
does about the situation. 

Old Black Mammy. 

(Many of the Southern States propose erect- 
ing a monument to the old black mammy of ante- 
bellum days. — Daily Paper.) 

Away down South in Dixieland 

AVliere snowy fields of cotton grow, 
And live-oaks stand in mossy cloaks 

Like ghostly soldiers in a row, 
And banjos tinkle to the moon. 

And winds are heavy with the scent 
Of jasmine and magnolias, 

They want to raise a monument 
To old black mammy. 

The memory of her ebon face 

Beneath its scarlet turban gay. 
Is dear to all lier babies yet. 

Though tliey are wrinkled, bent and gray. 
She rocked tliem in her loving arms. 

And crooned tliem off to happy rest, 
And all tlieir childish griefs and pains 

Were sootlied upon the ample breast 
Of old black mammy. 

185 



APPENDIX 

She peopled witli her fancy quaint 

Eacli bush and tree with spectres bold, 
And while a son of Dixie lives 

Her folk-lore stories will be told. 
They dwell in every Southern heart, 

They roll from every Southern tongue, 
The mystic, droll, romantic tales 

Her children loved to hear when young 
From old black mammy. 

Her loyal faith in things divine. 

Her simple creed of hope and trust, 
Survive the seasons as they fade. 

And rise triumphant from the dust. 
Her skin was black, her soul was white, 

Her many virtues justly claim 
The tribute of a sculptured stone 

To glorify the lowly name 
Of old black mammy. 

MiNA Irving^ McGirt's Magazine. 



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